Rockman: the Robot War
by Maelgrim
Summary: Novelization of the first Rockman (Megaman) game for the Nintendo.
1. Default Chapter

R O C K M A N : T H E R O B O T W A R

**R O C K M A N :T H ER O B O TW A R**

A TALE OF ROCKMAN

written by Ben Roberts

**Cast of Characters**

_Doctor Thomas Xavier __Light-benevolent robot maker, creator of Rock and Roll_

_Doctor Willam Albert __Wily-cousin and assistant to Dr. Light; cynic_

_Rockman-android 001, assistant to Dr. Light, champion against chaos_

_Roll-android 002, Rock's "female" counterpart, assistant to Dr. Light_

_Achilles/Cut __Man-androbot 003, timber felling robot_

_Heracles/Guts __Man-androbot 004, wilderness reclamation robot_

_Orpheus/Ice __Man-androbot 005, Antarctic exploration robot_

_Hephestas/Bomb __Man-androbot 006, ground disruption robot_

_Helios/Fire __Man-androbot 007, waste disposal robot_

_Icarus/Elec __Man-androbot 008, atomic energy storage robot_

**Setting: _20XX A.D._**

_Dr. Light's __lab--Neo Tokyo, Japan_

_Skull __Castle--Andes Mountain Range in Chile (South America)_

_Guts Man's __Domain--Mining center in Nokaneng(Africa)_

_Fire Man's __Domain--Waste disposal center in New Denver (North America)_

_Cut Man's __Domain--Treeborg supply and processing plant in Sydney (Australia)_

_Ice Man's Domain--Water purification center in New Shirewick (Antarctica)_

_Bomb Man's Domain--Mining center in Chengdu, New China(Asia)_

_Elecman's Domain--World Power Plant in Keliva, Croatia(Central Europe)_

**Author's Note:This story is based on the FamiCom game _Rockman, released by Capcom of Japan. It does __not use the Captain N cartoons as reference, and it doesn't use the United States Mega Man cartoons as reference either. Rockman is not portrayed as a "living machine" in this story. He is an android, capable of thought, emotions, and pain._**

This portrayal is not entirely consistent with the original video game, as Rockman as actually supposed to be a robot (and Rockman X is an android; all copies of him are replica-androids, hence "repliroids").However, I felt it necessary to assign a somewhat more living term to Rockman as the character he is portrayed as in my own mind.

Another inconsistency, which will probably bother more people, is that Rockman is actually supposed to be a little-boy robot, with a voice that sounds suspiciously like it is supplied by a four-year old girl.

Tough.I never imagined him as such when I played Megaman 2 for the very first time, and I don't intend to write him that way.It's my story, dammit.

I once read the American _Mega Man 2 novelization, and I can honestly say that I could have better spent that half hour by trying to poke out my own eyes with a banana. My story doesn't fit with that novelization, but I can justify that by saying that this is a tale of Rockman: not Megaman. I imagine the forces which push a simple tool-user robot into the role as the guardian of liberty and freedom as darker and more sinister than as portrayed in many Megaman fan fiction stories._

Oh, and Dr. Light and Dr. Wily's real Japanese names are Dr. Thomas Right and Dr. Albert W. Wily.I got confused.Sorry.

With those numerous disclaimers out of the way, I invite you to enter to world of Tokyo 20XX, in which a world war has left the ravaged planet vulnerable to the machinations of a madman. In this darkness, a champion against chaos arises.

This is his tale.

--Ben Roberts / Mælgrim Crwthor

"The early 21st century, after the cataclysmic Third World War, heralded in the Age of Robots, so called because of the rapid advances in artificial intelligence.One particular robotechnician, Dr. Thomas Light, and his nemesis Dr. William Wily, deserve special mention, as well as the very famous Rockman, called by American papers, "Mega Man."None of our current repliroid production would be possible without these three very important historical figures . . ."

--excerpt from _Repliroids and their Place in Society by Dr. Alan Cain, historian and archaeologist_

**Prologue**

In the center of darkness, a pool of incandescent light surrounded the man.

About fifty years old, his hair was full on top of his head, though prematurely white, shot through with streaks of iron grey.His beard and mustaches were both snow-white as well, and the crinkle lines around his blue eyes indicated a face more accustomed to laughing than frowning.Indeed, in another country, he might have been likened to Santa Claus, for he was as portly around the middle as the jolly old elf was reported to be.

Dressed in his old and faded white lab coat, the man snipped the last wire with a pair of electrical wiresnips.He looked up from his work to the luminescent clock on the wall across the lab.

Three-thirty four.Blast.He hadn't meant to work this late.

Still, it was worth it; the job was done.

Below the Santa clone, lying on the table, was what appeared--by all rights--to be a man.His hands were a work of art, if the old man dared say so himself.The raven-black hair looked completely natural, although it might be shot through with highlights of midnight-blue in bright sunlight.Large, piercing blue eyes regarded the man sightlessly in a well-proportioned face.

Were it not for the mess of wires and bolts that lay revealed within the man's chest cavity, he would appear completely human.The old man picked up the access panel and placed it back on the man's chest, where magnetic seals and synthetic skin made a seamless close.

By any reckoning, Thomas Xavier Light was a genius.

The man grinned at the android lying on the table before him.All that was needed now was the master control chip in the brain, and the invention would be complete.Who could have imagined that it would come this far?Dr. Light's grin grew even wider.

Certainly, he had never imagined such success when he had first attended the Tokyo Institute of Technology.His first idea had been to become a linguist, for Thomas Light spoke German, French, Japanese, and of course, English with equal ease.Yet somehow, in applying to Japanese universities, he had been drawn to the ever-growing field of robotics.

From the invention of his first robot, a sort of "cybernetic suitcase," as he liked to call it, he had been hooked.His German cousin, William Albert Wily, had already also been accepted at a prestigious Japanese Technical Institute, and so Dr. Light followed in his footsteps.

Here, then, was the crowning achievement of Light's career to date.The new android would be identical to a human in every way, but for its inability to make certain decisions.For instance, it would never be able to violate any of the three Rules of Robotics:

_A robot must never harm, or directly cause harm, to a human being._

_A robot must act for self preservation unless it conflicts with the first rule._

_A robot must obey all commands, unless they are in conflict with the first two rules._

Still, it--he--would be fairly human.Even Dr. Light couldn't say for sure exactly what his personality would be when activated.Of course, the doctor could, and had, provided guidelines, but the finer points of it would remain unknown until the moment of activation.

Thomas Light looked across the room to where the android's "female" counterpart lay on a corresponding table, almost invisible in the blackness of the night in the lab.As a joke, he had named them Rock and Roll.Rock, the newly completed "male" android, would be an assistant to Dr. Light in his studies, as would Roll, to a lesser extent.

There was so much to be done, still!Dr. Light grinned into the night at the challenge.With technology like this . . . why, the Earth could be reclaimed from the radiation and overpopulation which poisoned its body!

Dr. Wily was due to arrive tomorrow--no, later today, Light reminded himself--so he'd better get some sleep so he could meet his cousin at the Turboport.There was so much to do and so little time!

With the grant from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the two cousins, as partners, were to begin their massive project on the following day.Hopefully, Rock and Roll would prove of great assistance, once activated.

Thomas X. Light straightened his back and ignored the popping sounds it made in protest as he set down the electrical wiresnips.Tomorrow would be a busy day, and he had so much to look forward to!

*****

William Albert Wily sat aboard the Bullet Train and studied the schematics.

Of course, they were only preliminary sketches, but better than nothing at all.He had been working feverishly on the designs since the week before when his cousin, famed robotechnician Dr. Light, had called on the televid and announced that the pair of them had been given a grant to develop six industrial robots of amazing capabilities.

Wily recalled the conversation perfectly.

"More robots?" he had asked."Didn't we just finish with this?Didn't Blues teach you your lesson?"

"They'll be better than Blues, Will!"Dr. Light's effervescent voice had disarmed Wily's apprehension."I learned my lesson, yes!Blues' brother will never be allowed to make the same mistakes.Come on, it'll be the challenge of a lifetime!"

At the word "challenge," Dr. Wily had buckled, and agreed to join his brilliant cousin in creating the six most advanced robots the world had yet seen.So it was that Dr. Wily found himself riding on a Bullet Train to Tokyo.

The Tokyo Institute of Technology itself had specified that the pair work on developing robots to counter six of the worst environmental problems that threatened society on Earth.Human laborers survived for too little time in most cases; they tired quickly and frightened easily in radioactive cleanup areas.Therefore, the robots would be designed according to the need for filling the gap left by distrustful and rebellious human workers.

A wilderness reclamation robot was needed to clear away nuclear rubble generated during the blessedly short-lived Third World War, while a waste disposal robot would work in tandem with it to dispose of the nuclear waste and other garbage that threatened to overwhelm most urban areas.Teams of four each could be assigned to cities in varying degrees of quantity.

Perhaps most important would be the atomic energy robot, which would help tremendously in utilizing the full potential of atomic power plants around the world.Hopefully, many of that type of model could be used at the World Power Plant in Sydney, commissioned as a last show of a tenuously United Earth.

No less important would be the Antarctic exploration robot, which would help in purifying water at the South Pole.Because the South Pole alone had somehow avoided the ravages of nuclear winter and the poisonous radioactive hell which possessed the waters after the Third World War, all water in the world was drawn from reservoirs deep beneath the surface of Antarctica.The only source of pure, clean water on the planet came from the World Water Purification Plant in New Shirewick at the South Pole.

Finally came the timber felling robot, to help clear areas for new housing and provide lumber for buildings, and the ground disruption robot, to aid in the mining of minerals needed to maintain the flow of always-increasing industrial robot production.

In front of him, Wily held the sketch for the wilderness reclamation robot.Like the others, it was humanoid.It had massive shoulders and a stout body to support its "muscle" structure.A huge lantern jaw would be used to crush large pieces of rubble to smaller, more manageable sizes, while the "hard hat" on its head would protect it from falling material.

Although it looked a bit cartoony, the design appealed to Wily's more fanciful side.Thomas would understand: hadn't he named his two robots Rock and Roll?Wily chuckled to himself, but frowned as a servingbot approached and offered him a drink.What ever happened to human service?

The world was too dependent on robots, Wily surmised grimly as he refused refreshments.It would be the downfall of humanity, should the robots somehow go berserk and revolt.Of course, Wily reminded himself, that was why they were all programmed with the Three Rules.

Still, Blues--

Wily shivered and glanced down at his old, leatherbound copy of Karl Capek's _R.U.R.It could happen too easily of somebody got careless.The world would indeed be a grim place if somebody were to . . ._

Wily brushed the unpleasant thought aside and dozed off into a sleep with dreams of a dark haired welder and a silver-colored welding shield, brand new on the day of its experimental plasma-burst proof test . . .


	2. Awakenings

Chapter One

**Chapter One**

**Awakenings**

_I._

_I am._

_I am Rock._

Life sparked and miraculously grew within a nightmarish twist of silicon wafers, copper wiring and microscopic circuitry.Three cognizant and self-aware thoughts surfaced amidst the darkness of nonbeing, and brought truth to the old maxim: _I think, therefore I am._

Tiny servomotors whirred nearly inaudibly and carried out their predetermined set of instructions.Syntheflesh slid smoothly over diamond-hard corneas and revealed perfectly manufactured artwork.Twin crystal lenses twisted slowly and admitted light to a pair of photoreceptors designed to recognize and decode over a dozen types of wavelengths for visual recognition.

The android on the table opened his hawk-blue eyes and looked around him.

It did not occur to him that he was other than an android, though at first, second and third glance, he appeared entirely human.He stood and looked at his hands.From what he could tell, they looked organic.But then, everything about him did.

As a preprogrammed imperative, he ran a quick self-diagnostic scan of his system.What he found and accepted without pause would have astounded any scientist on the globe.Literally millions of tiny servomotors and steel cables simulated muscle structure and movements beneath the unusually pale synthetic skin of the android.Hundreds of tiny computers controlled his movements as he decided upon them, all in turn controlled by an amazing neuro-synthesis computer located in his head and chest cavities.

A miracle, and nothing less.He was a nearly perfect human replica--constructed entirely of highly durable and tough titanium alloys and synthetic flesh.Years, perhaps centuries ahead of his time, the android turned his head experimentally and looked at himself.

Rock.That was his name.He assumed it had been programmed into him, although he couldn't be sure.Perhaps somebody had told him while he was asleep . . . ?Doubtful.Had Rock been subject to human gestures, he would have shaken his head slightly.

He leaned against the highly-polished chrome-plated table upon which he had lain and studied the image of his own face.Large blue eyes, jet black hair and a face that looked more like a seventeen year old young man than that of a mature adult characterized him.

He was garbed in a pale orange, sleeveless robe that reached just to his mid thigh, cinched about the waist with a black cloth belt.His pants seemed made of the same stuff, and tucked into black boots of some sort.They were sturdy, and looked as if they had seen their share of wear and tear.

Rock flexed his fingers and looked about the room.It was a fairly plain chamber, with white walls and tiling.No visible electronics were in evidence, except for the rows of fluorescent lights above.

A doorway stood open behind him, and in it stood a man.

Rock felt his auto-irises constrict to adjust for the added light reflected by the white lab coat worn by the man.To avoid photoreceptor overload, his system automatically compensated and closed his eyelids for a fraction of a second while the irises adjusted.

In human terms--a blink.

"Hello, Rock," said the man, in a fatherly voice.Rock felt he should recognize the man, but could only hypothesize upon his identity.After a moment, Rock hazarded a guess.

"Are you my . . . maker?" he asked.The term _father would have sounded wrong, somehow._

The man broke into a wide beam."Yes, I am.My name is Thomas Xavier Light, and I am your creator."He looked Rock up and down for a moment.For the slimmest of instants--one which a human eye would have missed--Rock saw what might have been sorrow or longing playing across the aged features of his master and creator.

"And I am Rock," Rock answered.It was a statement meant more to confirm the idea to himself than to introduce himself to the doctor; after all, wouldn't Light have known his name already?He rolled the name around on his tongue, testing the sound of it.It was as good as any, he supposed.A simple, solid name: Rock.

Half-astounded by his own ability to form such opinions so quickly, Rock decided to run another diagnostic to see if he had changed in any way.Amazingly, his diagnostic indicated a constantly shifting neuro-net that adapted to new information; even an errant thought by Rock could be processed and extrapolated on--subconsciously to use an organic phrase--until an opinion was formed!

Rock blinked again as Dr. Light flipped on another light.Dr. Light beamed and clapped his hands once together."Excellent!" he exclaimed."Your blink-reflex is programmed perfectly!I really wasn't quite sure about that, you know."

A subroutine in Rock's neural info-net analyzed the remark as slightly humorous, and compensated with a slight contraction of the cables that controlled the widening and shortening of the mouth.

"A grin!" Dr. Light was in ecstasy."Oh, wonderful!Rock, you are a marvel!"

Rock stood stock still, confused.He wasn't quite sure what to do at this point.He considered asking a question, and calculated a 94% probability that doing so would lead to a gain in information on the present situation.However, before he could speak, Dr. Light began again.

"Actually," Light said, "You are Rockman.However, Rock will do.It is a good name, and it matches your . . ." Light seemed to grasp for words, and eventually shrugged.He gesture to the doorway."Well, Rock.This is Roll."

Rock looked past his "father" and saw an image of breathtaking beauty.At least, had he the need to truly breathe, the sight would have taken his breath away.The young woman behind Dr. Light was a bit shorter than Rock.Though her face seemed somehow familiar, it was crowned by pale red-gold hair that fell to her mid-back, caught up in a pony tail.She wore a simple crimson dress and brown leather shoes.Her eyes, like Rock's, were a piercing blue.

"Roll," Rock said to himself.He wasn't quite sure what to make of this.Dr. Light looked on expectantly, as if Rock were supposed to know what to do.After a moment of consideration, he asked, "Is she my--," probability matrices expanded and collapsed within Rock's brain, and flow charts that would have driven even the most persistent logician to tears produced eight logical possibilities.Rock filled in the word he calculated as having the most likelihood of being accurate."--sister?"

Dr. Light frowned."Well, in a way, I suppose."He grasped his hands and looked distressed.Eyes rolling heavenward, he continued."I mean, you two were meant . . . but if you . . . oh, never mind!"He threw his hands up into the air and looked heavenward."Yes, Roll is your sister."

Rock grinned.Having a sister would be much less difficult, he calculated, than having a mate, which had been number three on his list of probabilities."A sister.Good."He walked up to Roll and spoke."Hi.I'm Rock."

Roll's voice when she spoke, though sweet, was laden with sarcasm."So I guessed."

"Um . . ." Rock looked around for some help, and decided that he would do better to talk to Dr. Light."What is my function, anyway?"

Light seemed amused, and answered after letting Rock stew for a few moments in uncomfortable silence."You are my assistant."He turned to Roll."And you, too.We have great work to do together, and not much time.In less than an hour, my cousin Dr. Wily will be here."

"Where is here?" Rock asked.

Dr. Light looked flustered."You are in Tokyo, of course.In my lab."

"Tokyo."Rock's voice was flat.He turned to Roll and gave her a questioning look.She shrugged.Rock pushed blue-black hair out of his eyes and asked, "What is a Tokyo?"

"Oh my."Dr. Light sat down heavily and shook his head."I should have included this in your programming."He looked at both of the new robots."Well, at least you both know how to read."

Both nodded.Rock scanned his memory banks, and found that he could not only read, but speak eighteen different languages.Dr. Light continued as he pushed himself up from the white tile floor."Well, then.Go to the library on the second floor of this building.You'll find anything you could want to know there.If you get lost, ask the serving 'bots for directions.But come down in a bit to meet my cousin Will."

Rock wondered internally what increment of time a "bit" was, but decided that he could determine such information in the library, when he and Roll arrived."Very well."

"Have fun."Dr. Light grinned, and Rock found himself, and Roll returning the expression.

Rock's shrug was mirrored by his golden-haired sister, and the pair turned and walked upstairs, leaving a softly chuckling Dr. Light behind.He could not have been more pleased.

"Eddie!" he called.In a moment, his robotic transport device--which he had nicknamed Eddie--trundled into view.It had two legs with large feet to keep its balance, holding up a wide, roughly cone-shaped body with a face on the front and a thin arm extending out of the right side.The arm held a small crank that opened a large compartment on the head, giving this line of robots their trade name, the FlipTops.Light had manufactured and sold thousands of them.

Eddie's thin arm rapidly turned the crank, and the top of its head/torso popped open, revealing a sheaf of paperwork cluttered with pens, pencils and a hundred different measuring tools and devices.Thomas Light rifled around in the patient robot's head until he found what he was looking for: the Council's expectations for the six industrial robots.

*****

Weeks, then months flew by.

Rock and Roll learned quickly to do their share of work around the lab.Rock was particularly gifted with tools, and Roll with electronic schematics, so Light had each help him and Wily in their tasks.Soon, the pair became invaluable, though Wily grumbled that they were always in the way.

Rock had read until all the books in Dr. Light's extensive library had been finished, from _Frankenstein to Isaac Asimov's __Basic Chemistry to Sen Tzu's __the Art of War.Roll was no less enthusiastic in her yearning to learn, and soon, the readings developed into a race to see which "sibling" could finish first._

Despite his ability to feel emotion, Rock felt strangely detached when he read about the atrocities of the Second World War, or the racial persecution that followed the Third World War.Roll, when she read the books, was furious, and demanded to know how humans could be so stupid.Dr. Light had only shrugged sadly.Dr. Wily had said something acerbic about the limitless abilities of humans to commit mass stupidity.

Conversely, Rock felt little reaction to such ideas.Instead of the burning anger he knew he should feel, or the deep sense of disquiet, he felt only that he should correct such wrongs.When Rock had asked Dr. Light about the suspected flaw in his own system, Dr. Light merely raised an eyebrow and assured Rock that he was fine.

It was not until Rock picked up a book of Dr. Wily's--a play written by a Rumanian whose name was Capek--that he was truly disturbed by something.It was three months after his activation that he read _Rossum's Universal Robots, and when he finished, he walked downstairs to the lab, quietly._

When Wily saw him holding the book, he shook his head."You forgot to program your robots with manners, Cousin Tom, or is it no longer considered necessary to ask permission to borrow one's books?"

Rock stammered an apology, by Wily waved it away.

Dr. Light put down his wrench after tightening the last bolt on the robot he worked on, and looked at Rock with concern."What is it?You look upset."

Rock held up the copy of _R.U.R."This.Could it really happen?"_

Wily nodded grimly."Robots could, conceivably, revolt against humanity and destroy them.That is why we program every robot with the Three Rules."

"But," Rock said, "killing one another is a human trait.Robots do not kill."

"Not as of yet," Wily said grimly."A robot programmed to kill _will do so."_

Dr. Light waved a dismissive hand."Bah!You two worry too much.Here, Rock--look at Number Three."

Rock took a step forward and looked at the nearly-completed timber felling robot.Of course, he had seen it a hundred times before; it was his handiwork that had secured the springsteel to the soles of the feet.He and Roll had worked together on the legs of this particular robot, adding several muscle-cables, so that it would be capable of jumping high in the air to cut off tree branches.

"He's nearly finished," Rock observed, with some pride in his voice.He grinned wryly."Rather ironic, don't you think?"

"What?" Dr. Wily asked."That we're setting up the human race to be dominated by its own inventions?_Scheiße, do you realize how serious this is?"_

"Not that," Rock answered."I mean that we've invented a robot to cut down robotic trees."

Dr. Light barked a short laugh."True.But who could have predicted that treeborgs would have been so successful?"

Rock shrugged._Treeborgs--a term coined in the early 21st century when mass deforestation, pollution and radioactive fallout had combined to wipe out 98% of the world's plant life.That disaster had heralded the end of the Third World War.When men realized that they would die from lack of oxygen provided by trees, a concerted effort by all the world's leading nations produced a team of scientists who eventually came to be known as cyborg-botanists-- "cybotanists" to most English speaking countries.The team of fifteen dedicated robotechnicians and botanists had built upon several theories.Prosthetic enhancements were already commonplace amongst those humans wounded in battle or born with physical defects.If one could adequately blend organic matter with inorganic on a man, why not with trees?_

The question had eventually given rise to the creation of the so-called "treeborgs."Although the term was outdated now, the principal remained the same.While the few remaining trees survived in highly protected nurseries dotted around the globe, treeborgs flourished, a perfect blend of flora and machine.

The first treeborgs did not begin as seeds; rather, they started life as saplings.With leaves enhanced by micro-solar panels and a malleable core that simulated photosynthesis, treeborgs could only be distinguished from true organic trees by the inexplicable tendency for cables or plating to grow from the bark.

Cybotanists still didn't fully understand how their own work functioned; in theory, it should have been impossible for treeborgs to germinate and produce seeds.In theory, it should have been impossible for the treeborgs to remove trace amounts of minerals from the earth through their roots and synthesize entire branches of iron.Still, theory notwithstanding, both happened.Treeborgs were now more widespread than their organic predecessors had been, surviving even in the arctic and Antarctic.

In addition, treeborg wood was harder and more durable than traditional organic wood (pieces of which now sold for thousands of dollars), and a healthy lumber trade had developed around their cultivation.Replanting was never a problem; treeborgs grew much faster than organic trees, reaching mature height in often under a year.

Rock shook his head slightly.He could get lost in his own knowledge sometimes; that's what came of having a perfect memory.He looked from doctor to doctor to see if they had noticed his thoughtful reverie.It occurred to him a few seconds later that to bring up all the data available on the development and growth of treeborgs and the treeborg lumber industry had taken less than a second in his super-efficient brain.

"Nearly finished," Rock repeated, staring in wonder at the end result of months of hard labor, interspersed with flashes of brilliant inspiration by both Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, and--to the doctors' surprise--Rock and Roll."Just a few chips left to install?" Rock asked.

Dr. Light and Dr. Wily nodded."We plan to activate him for a test run this afternoon, if you and Roll want to watch."

Rock grinned, his expression a duplicate of the smile he had picked up from Dr. Light.Both doctor-cousins had to remind themselves that he was not human."That would be great.I'll go find Roll and tell her."Without another word, he turned and walked upstairs to the library, his disquiet forgotten.

Both scientists watched him go.Wily shook his head.

"We depend too much on him and Roll," he said."They did almost the entire leg assembly on this robot.I never even saw the changes Roll made to my schematics!"

Dr. Light frowned."They're supposed to be lab assistants, Will.That's what lab assistants do."

"But what if they broke down?Would we be able to work without them?" Wily folded his arms and looked levelly at his cousin.

"Of course," Light snapped."You're too much of a fatalist.Here, hand me that access panel."

Wily picked up the gray access panel that would cover the main chest cavity and placed it in Light's waiting hand.He looked at their creation as Light let the magnetic seals seamlessly hide the chest cavity; it looked humanoid, though not nearly so much as Rockman or Roll.

The upper arms and legs were of normal human proportions, and painted a pale gray.The lower arms and legs, painted a dull crimson, were both somewhat ballooned out: the feet were exceptionally large, so that the robot would have no trouble keeping its balance once it landed from its mighty leaps.

The head, also of dull crimson, was a perfect sphere, with silver ear-forms on each side.Large eyes, a concession to Wily's cartoon-like sense of humor, would also serve to take in large amounts of optical data and allow the robot to see more than a normal human being would.A small mouth equipped with a voice chip would allow the robot to communicate with human beings.

It was the blade that was Wily's pride.He and Light had worked for weeks to make sure that the circular scissors-blades, about a foot and a half in diameter and magnetically fixed to the top of the robot's forehead, would retain their razor-sharp edge after repeated use in cutting down trees.An added brainstorm of Wily's had been to implant a magnetic homing chip in the blades, so that they would serve as a "boomerang"; that way, the robot wouldn't need to waste precious time and lower its efficiency by needing to retrieve the thrown blades after every felled tree.

"What were we going to name him, again?" Wily asked as he admired the robot.

"Achilles," answered Light, who had a love of ancient mythology.

Wily shrugged, then grinned."It's a bit of a departure from Blues, Rock and Roll."His grin faded."But you realize, we're only adding to the problem."

Light frowned."What problem?"

"Once we finish these robots, they'll be so popular that every nation in the world will want them."Wily unfolded his arms and gestured at the inert Achilles."Soon, nobody will be cutting their own wood.The lumber industry will be dominated by these robots, and thousands of lumberjacks will lose their livelihoods!People will be become so dependent on these robots for their lumber, that if they ever break down, the world will be in chaos!"

Light sighed."I'm getting tired of hearing this over and over again, Will.You did agree to help me with this project, right?Did I just imagine that?"

"No," Wily snapped."But the consequences--"

"I don't think you need to worry," Thomas Light interrupted."The lumber trade may be dominated by these robots, but there will always be room for human labor.After all, robots are expensive."

"But far more efficient than men," Wily answered heatedly."And they don't tire as quickly.Mark my words, Tom--"

"You are a terrible distraction," Light joked."We'll never get this finished if you keep up your ominous portents of world domination by a bunch of industrial robots.What's next--'Toasters of the world unite?'"

Wily blushed."All right, all right."

Light picked up the master control chip for the timber felling Achilles and inserted it into the massive IBM computer that he used in his lab for most programming.As Wily watched, he sat at the terminal and began to type:

PRIORITY ONE: THE THREE RULES

A ROBOT MUST NEVER HARM A HUMAN BEING.

A ROBOT MUST PRESERVE ITS OWN EXISTENCE, UNLESS THAT CONFLICTS WITH THE FIRST RULE.

A ROBOT MUST OBEY ALL COMMANDS, UNLESS THEY ARE IN CONFLICT WITH THE FIRST TWO RULES.

There was a faint whirring sound as the computer transferred the information into the Priority One memory banks of the master control chip.It was one of several chips, controlling the twelve lesser control chips, which dictated such tasks as timber felling, speech, locomotion, and so forth.

Light held the chip up to Wily.

"Would you care to do the honors?" he asked.

Wily took the chip with a sense of foreboding and walked over to the motionless robot.He pressed a hidden button-pad on the side of its head and watched an access panel slide open, revealing its heavily shielded cybernetic brain, consisting of a nightmare-maze of wires and chips.In the one empty space, he placed the chip, and watched as the servo-motors clamped it in place.

Pressing the access button again, Wily turned away as the access panel closed.

"Well, it's done, now.All we need it the spark of life." Wily sighed, and was suddenly weary.

Thomas Light noticed and put a hand on Wily's shoulder."It will be all right.You'll see.Come on, how about getting some lunch?"

*****

"Konnichi wa.Watashi no namae wa Rokkuman desu."

Rock had chosen Japanese as his language of introduction out of habit--all of the humans to whom he had thus far introduced himself had been Japanese. 

Rock extended his hand out to the crimson-steel gauntleted hand.Achilles seemed to take it uncertainly, before shaking it.The timber-felling robot's mouth turned up in an uncertain grin, an almost exact copy of Rock's.

Rock understood.It had taken him a few weeks to properly express his own feelings with facial expressions, as humans did.It was more difficult than one might imagine to make a special subset of servomotor commands into second nature.Rock and Roll had both practiced their facial expressions for hours.After all, as Light had told them, another purpose of theirs was to fit into human society.

"Watashi wa . . . Achilles . . . desu?" Although the face--unpracticed at expression--remained blank, Rock could tell that the sentence was more of a question than an introduction.

"Yes," Rock answered. His grin was part assurance, part relief that Achilles' multi-language module was functioning properly.

In the observation room, Roll, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily watched with pride and awe as the two androids spoke to one another, getting acquainted.Rock and Roll had drawn lots to see who was the lucky one to meet Achilles first, and Rock, much to Roll's dismay, had won.

Roll put her hands on her hips, a gesture copied from an actor she had seen on the holovid."He's certainly enjoying himself, isn't he?" she snapped.

Dr. Light smiled indulgently."Fair is fair, Roll; you lost."

"I still don't see why two of us couldn't go in and talk to him," Roll said sullenly.

Dr. Wily threw up his hands."How can you be so foolish witha brain like yours?As I've told you a hundred times--"

"It was only twice," Roll interrupted.

"As I've told you a hundred times," Wily continued, with an irritated glance at Roll, "The danger is too great that he might be faultily programmed.If there is to be danger to somebody, it makes sense to only send in one!"

Roll folded her arms and pouted."I'm just as able to defend myself against danger as Rock."

"Shh!" Light scolded."They're coming!"

As he had said, the two robots had left the room and now approached the observation room.Rock and Achilles spoke animatedly over several things, sometimes slipping into computer dialect, which sounded like nothing so much as a nest of baby birds, all cheeping at once.

When they reached the observation room, Rock grinned and gestured to Achilles."He works."

Light nodded."So I see."

"But what about his main purpose?" Wily asked."Can he cut down trees?That is what he was designed for."All eyes turned to the German scientist, who said, "It's all very well for Rock to have somebody to talk to, but if Achilles can't cut down trees, he's a failure."

Achilles seemed to tense at the word "failure."

"I can fulfill my function," he said evenly.

"Let's go outside," Dr. Light suggested."There's a tree out there that's been blocking the view from the observatory for quite some time now, and we've been saving it just for you."Of course, it was a treeborg and not a tree, but the two terms were synonymous by now.

So saying, he turned and walked down the corridor that led outside.The rest of the group followed, Achilles gaping out the large floor-to-ceiling transparisteel window that overlooked a panoramic vista of Tokyo, a mass of spires reaching for the sky and half-finished space scrapers on a backdrop of majestic mountains and blue sky.

It was a short walk to the observatory, and soon the group stood in front of the offending tree.Normally, Dr. Light would have had the tree transplanted, but he deemed it a necessary sacrifice to cut down the tree for Achilles' test.Achilles stood, eyeing the tree impassively.

It was a large maple-type tree, maybe fifteen meters in height.Branches reached out in a large pavilion of green and shade.The outermost of the limbs stretched across the observatory's main telescope.

Two human workers nearby, taking a lunch break from the construction of the new wing of Light's lab, looked on, interested.A few meters away, a team of five EG-400 multi-purpose labor 'bots--commonly called metools, or, for the more fanciful, hard hat "Macs"--turned large photoreceptors to watch in curiosity.

Rock gave Achilles an assuring thump on the back and winked."I know you can do it; I helped make you."

Wily frowned, but remained silent.

Achilles turned to the pair of cousins."Shall I just cut the tree down?"

Dr. Light smiled."Why make it boring?Cut off the top branches first.Then the bottom.Leave a middle set of branches still attached.Then cut down the tree."

"You have thirty seconds," Dr. Wily added.

Roll looked at Rock.Both of the robots' eyes had widened.Surely, Wily was joking?

Achilles made no comment, except."I begin."

"Now!" Called Wily, pressing a button on a small digital stopwatch.

Achilles shot up into the air with a hiss of hydraulics.Lost to sight in the high, leafy foliage of the tree, the timber-felling robot could be heard at work.A quick, almost imperceptibly quiet snap and click of the blades being freed from Achilles' forehead was followed by a loud, repeated snickas the blades opened and closed, sometimes on air, sometimes on living wood and cable.

"Look out!" came the cry in less than five seconds.Upper branches, large and small, crashed through the lower branches to land noisily in a heap before Rock, Roll and the two doctors.

Achilles leaped down with a loud thud and threw the blades again before he reached the ground.They flew with unnatural speed, slicing again and again into wood, slashing leaf and limb.The snick sound was louder now, and Rock could hear as they cut each branch off, sometimes three or four with one superhuman-quick throw.

"Timber!" shouted Achilles.

The blades sang forth a final time, and the sound of shearing wood was so loud it made Rock cover his ears.With a shriek like tearing metal, the tree fell to the ground.

Wily punched the clock, and everybody stared in shocked silence.

The readout for the time read 11:06.

"Eleven seconds," Wily said, his voice hoarse with disbelief.He gazed at Achilles with a mixture of fear, admiration, and respect written on his weathered features.

Nearby, the metools made alarmed beeping sounds and scampered back to their work.The two construction men sat, pale-faced and silent, watching the small group.

Dr. Light beamed."Excellent!I propose we go inside and celebrate!"

Dr. Wily broke into a radiant beam, something which shocked Rock to his core.Never had he seen Wily smile, let alone so happily."Did you see that?" he exclaimed to nobody in particular as Light took his arm and led him inside."He was amazing!Nothing is as powerful as that.Nothing!"

Roll grinned at Achilles, and the three robots followed the pair of doctors inside.

Still sitting on a bench nearby, sandwiches forgotten, two workers took shallow breaths and looked at one another with fear-glazed eyes.

After a moment, one of them laughed nervously."Wow."

The other's invective was lost on the wind before he whispered,"I'm getting out of here!"

*****

Weeks passed quickly as Rock and Roll learned more and more, also teaching Achilles some of what they had learned about human culture.As the pair had learned early on from watching the televid, the pair of doctors was hardly a model example of what society was like.

For the most part, Rock and Roll had hung around the construction workers, learning from them what normal human life was like.The robots' human likenesses had been so complete that the workers mistook them for other humans at first.It had been until one of the men got bold and pinched Roll's bottom that they had discovered the truth.

Roll had turned and picked the man up by his collar, lifting him into the air with a single sweep of her titanium arm."My programming prevents me from throwing you across the yard," she had said evenly."But if you ever do that again, I promise I will find ways to get around my programming."

Now everybody regarded the robot twins with an equal mixture of caution and admiration.Rock had feared that the outburst would cause the workers to shun the two robots.However, the discovery of the twins' nature, had, if anything, increased the workers' desire to talk about human life.Each spoke longer than the last, wanting to give his exact perspective on life as he knew it.

The pair of androids had unblinkingly accepted all information.Opinions from idealism to cynicism to paranoia abounded in the workers' speech, and by the end of the first month, the only sign that Rock and Roll weren't human was their disturbing tendency to speak to one another in computer code on occasion.

When Achilles appeared with Rock and Roll to speak with the workers, the human beings had been rather reluctant to speak with him.It was Rock who finally pointed out that there was no justice in their judgment.

"He has as much intelligence as Roll and I," he said."He just looks different.I hope you're not so prejudiced as to hold a person's appearance against him with no second thoughts, or Akira there is in trouble, too."

Akira Yamatsu, of whom Rock spoke, had been disfigured at birth, so that one eye was slightly larger than the other.Although it was highly conspicuous, most who knew him had gotten used to the imperfection, and thought nothing of it.

That statement had alleviated some of the construction workers' fears, and they began to speak with Achilles as well, though still not quite as openly as they had with Rock or Roll.

The real test came when the rest of the robots had been completed.Dr. Light and Dr. Wily held a press conference to "unveil" their amazing robotic creations in September, and Rock waited before the lab, ushering in reporters.It had been the idea of Dr. Light to see if anybody could tell that Rock and Roll were robots as well.

None of the reporters guessed, as they were politely seated in the demonstration hall, that the young man and woman who led them to their seats were androids.Rock was nearly ecstatic as he realized it.He could pass for a human completely!

He felt, for the first time, shabbily dressed.For all of his life so far, he had been around jeans-and-tank-top wearing construction workers who spoke earnestly but roughly, and the two doctors, almost always in lab coats.Rock thought it was some kind of joke between the two, for they hardly ever needed to wear the sterile white clothing except when performing delicate acid-immersion tests on memory chips.

Here, however, were men and women in business suits and ties.They looked immaculately clean in their darks and lights as Rock, dressed in his customary orange karateka-style robe and trousers belted with a black cloth, ushered them to their sitting places.

As Dr. Wily, nearly hidden behind a bristling forest of microphones, blazing white for all the lights shining on him, and observed intently by the eyes of millions of people via satellite and holographic televid, began to speak, Rock made a mental note to himself to get some new clothing.

"Citizens of the world!" Dr. Wily announced."A new age has begun today, with the creation and unveiling of eight of the world's most powerful robots!I, Doctor William A. Wily, am pleased to present to you my cousin and partner, Doctor Thomas Xavier Light!"

There was a round of applause and cheering as Dr. Light walked out on the stage to stand beside his cousin.Both men beamed.Rock marveled that Dr. Wily, once such a devoted advocate of the anti-robot dependency idea, should now be so happy to present his inventions to the world.

That's human pride for you, thought Rock, and rolled his eyes heavenward.He would be sure to tease Wily about this later on.

"As you know," Light was saying, "LighTech has been producing industrial and domestic robots for quite some time now: near to thirty years!We have made great progress in the world of robotechnics, from our first FlipTop line to the multi-purpose EG series, to our housebots."

Rock shifted position.

"However," Dr. Wily continued for Dr. Light, "Never before has the world seen, not only a theoretical, but a practical application of artificial intelligence as we have accomplished today."

"Since the coining of the term robot in the early 1920's, authors and film-makers alike have fantasized about humanoid robots--androids--that would not only resemble human beings, but do the work of them as well."Dr. Wily grinned and motioned to Thomas Light.

"I am pleased to announce," Dr. Light said, "That this is no longer a fantasy.As of today, fully-functional humanoid robots, fully capable of interacting with human society and doing difficult labor, are a reality!"

There was wild applause and cheering at this, and Dr. Light waited for the response to die down before speaking again."Today," he said, "It is mine and my distinguished colleague's pleasure to introduce to you the future of robotechnics!"

"Achilles," Dr. Wily said, "Is a timber-felling robot, equipped with the latest technology.He is fully intelligent and can speak three languages.Not only that, but after testing, it has been determined that he is at least ten times faster and more efficient than even the most industrious human lumberjack.I introduce to you, android 003, Achilles!"

There was more applause, and Rock winked at his friend as Achilles strode out on the stage, his hydraulics whispering slightly.The audience murmured quietly.Achilles spoke in flawless Japanese.

"Greetings, honorable guests.I am Achilles, the timber felling robot, android number 003, created by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily.It is my honor to appear before you today."He bowed.

One of the men in the crowd stood up, holding up his hand.Achilles raised an eyebrow."Yes?"

"I'm sorry," the man said, "But are we truly supposed to believe that you are a robot?I've seen some fine actors and costumes in my day, and this looks like one of them.You don't fool me."

Achilles grinned."You do not know how you compliment me by saying that.However, I shall prove myself.Look."He pressed a hidden button, and the access panel on his chest clicked and fell into his waiting hands, revealing a rat's nest of twisted wires, blinking lights, and lubricant pumps and cables.

An astonished murmuring swept across the audience.The reporter sat down, his face white.Achilles nodded, as if he had just explained something extremely difficult, and replaced his chest plate.

"Where are the others?" asked a woman in the crowd.

Dr. Wily smiled indulgently."We shall introduce them one at a time.We next present android 004, Heracles."

A monster of a robot walked onto the stage.He seemed to have difficulty walking, as if his massive legs were better suited to short hops and jumps.The murmuring the in the audience grew to voiced speaking, some of it alarmed.

Heracles, the wilderness reclamation robot, was nearly as broad as he was tall.His upper torso was painted black, with a red crystal, for concentrating energy, fastened in the center.His broad arms and legs were a dull orange color, while the massive epaulet-shoulders, the metal boots and gauntlets, and the reinforcing armor around his waist and upper legs, were a dull scarlet.

The face was a pale yellow, capped with a strong hard hat and dominated by two large eyes and a lantern jaw that worked separately, like a snake's.Everything about Heracles suggested brutish, massive strength, true to his name.

When he spoke, it was sparingly, and in slow Japanese."Greetings, honored guests.I am Heracles, the wilderness reclamation android 004; it is my function to clear land for future development.I am pleased to be of service to you."

Rock grinned.Heracles wasn't all that smart, but he had a heart--if the phrase could be properly used--of gold.Dr. Light and Dr. Wily had both agreed, for once, that if this robot broke the Prime Rule, he could be uncontrollable.Therefore, they had programmed him to be very friendly towards human beings and robots alike, so as never to endanger anybody.

Heracles looked to the back of the auditorium at Rock, and waved."Hi, Rock!"

Rock would have blushed, if he could have.The big idiot was going to ruin the surprise!

He waved half-heartedly at Heracles and closed his eyes in embarrassment.The reporter nearest him looked strangely at Rock, who explained, "I'm a lab assistant.He knows me already."

"Ah," the reporter said, and turned back to watch, as Dr. Light was already announcing android 005, the arctic exploration robot.

"As we all know," Dr. Light was saying, "world population has reached an all-time high.As such, many environments previously regarded as uninhabitable are now being considered for living.One such environment is Antarctica.Unfortunately, most humans are too frail to survive extensive exploration in such a climate.So, may we present to you Orpheus, the arctic exploration robot!"

Orpheus had always been a little too sarcastic for Rock's liking, but the android was still a friend.He strode out onto the stage and stood beside his two companions, cool and calm as always.Dressed in a light blue parka, and heavily insulated pants, both trimmed in white fur, Orpheus looked like an Eskimo.His hands and feet were covered with heavy white gloves and boots.His mouth was a little round "O"; he needed to speak, but it made sense to keep the intake of cold air in the Antarctic to a minimum.

Large eyes, as big as Achilles' overlooked the crowd.

"Hello," he said to the reporters."I am Orpheus, explorer of the underworld."Rock smiled. The name had been his idea.In legend, Orpheus had traveled into the underworld.Rock reasoned that, by northern hemisphere standards, Antarctica was about as "under" as one could get."I am android 005," he continued."I hope I am able to serve your people well."

The audience had quieted to near silence by now, all awaiting the next robot.

Android 006, the ground disruption robot, appeared.He walked and stood beside Orpheus.More accurately, Rock amended mentally, he waddled.Hephestas' strong legs were like Heracles'; good for leaping, but poor for walking.

Hephestas, as he introduced himself, struggled to stay upright.His body was a large sphere, black on the bottom and red on the top.His arms and legs were both orange, ending in yellow-booted and yellow-gloved feet and hands.The head, like Achilles', was a perfect sphere, a golden color with a red metal crest running down the center.Large eyes and a normal mouth made up the face.

He explained that he was a ground disruption robot, to help clear the way for such robots as Orpheus and Heracles.When he said this, he gestured, and a bomb appeared in his hand: a large, black sphere.

It was an amazing system dreamed up by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily; matter synthesis.Hephestas could pull together air particles and rearrange them into the component materials for a bomb in seconds; an incredible--if not openly miraculous--feat.

When Helios, the waste disposal robot walked on stage, Rock smiled.

His legs, arms, boots and stomach were white, while his gauntlets and the strange football padding-type upper body assembly were red.His head was enclosed in a helmet that looked like an old 1800's wood-burning stove.

"I am Helios," he stated.Then, with a wry smile (copied from Rock), "I would be of service to you gentle folk in the years ahead.I am the waste disposal robot 007."With a short blast of flame from the top of his helmet and another smile, he stepped back.

Finally, android 008, Icarus, leaped onto the stage.Rock had been privy to this small bit of theatrics, and had thought it a fitting entrance.As the atomic energy storage android, Icarus was full of vigor.As a result, he often spent more time up in the air, leaping around, than he did on the ground.His habit of excessive leaping and love of high places had soon earned him the name of the man who flew too close to the sun.

From the startled looks on the doctors' faces, Rock could tell that Icarus had not warned them about leaping from the ceiling first.As he landed, surprisingly lightly for almost two hundred pounds of machinery, he gave a dramatic flourish and bow.A few of the people in the audience laughed.

Rock smiled slightly and shook his head.Icarus was a jokester among the eight, and never tired of his pranks.Although he was mostly black, save for red gauntlets, boots, and a golden lightning bolt emblazoned on his chest, the twin-bolt eyemask he wore made him look more like a jester than anything else.

When he had made his introduction, the audience clapped and waited politely.Dr. Light moved to the podium and spoke."Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.We will now take your questions."

Whispers swept the room.At last, a woman in front of Rock stood up."Dr. Light, Dr. Wily," she called out, "You said there were eight robots.Where are the other two?"

Dr. Light grinned."You've already seen them, haven't you?"He shrugged then."Well, perhaps you weren't paying attention.Rock, Roll: will you please come up on the stage where the people can see you?"


	3. Infamy

Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

**Infamy**

Rock eyed the computer readout critically.

No abnormalities in the robot, so he let it pass.He adjusted his leather jacket--an indulgence he had taken after the press conference six months ago--and entered the information on his electronic notebook.

Since the press conference in September, Rock had taken a job as Dr. Light's representative to the LighTech factory in England.Had he wanted, he could have lived his life as a normal human being here in Gladstonbury.However, he felt an obligation to stay with Dr. Light.Therefore, he lived in Tokyo with his creator/mentor and teleported to England each day to work.

Teleportation was another brainchild of Dr. Light's and Dr. Wily's.Apparently, they had been working together on the concept since before Rock's activation.Due to an unfortunate accident, of which Rock could never get either doctor to disclose any information, the pair had let the project lie.Shortly after the invention of the matter synthesizer however, the cousins had finally perfected a system which would transport large groups of particles back and forth.Although they didn't want to risk trying it on organic matter yet, Rock had assured them that he would volunteer for experimentation.

So now he had a teleportation chip in his brain that allowed him to move across the world and back within a matter of minutes.It was quite handy.Rock frowned and bit his lip to keep his mind from wandering. That was the trouble with having a brain that adapted like a human's; it wandered like a human's from time to time.

_Get back on task, Rock.He forced himself to review the statistics about the factory for what seemed like the thousandth time that day._

This factory produced four main types of robots.One, a recent upgrade from the EG-400 series,was the EG-500 series, which resembled nothing so much as a large hard-hat when it was in its off mode.Underneath, it had two feet and photoreceptors--eyes--as well as plasma welders and small arms that could handle tools.Although not good for any complex chores, the EG-500 "metools" were very versatile.

The next was a welding robot invented after the press conference.It was humanoid, but had no face; it was just a large green or orange metal-clad humanoid with an all-obscuring welding helmet and shield, which could go on its back when it used its powerful plasma welder.The current model was the 12-KIF series.Absently, Rock wondered if there was any rhyme or reason in the numbers, or of they were just arbitrarily picked out of a hat.

The other two robots were military 'bots.Rock frowned.Dr. Light and most of the rest of the robotechnics community thought that military robots--which were often programmed without the first two rules of robotics--were immoral and unlawful.

In fact, in most countries, the warbots--as they were known--had been banned.The middle-east and some of Europe, including Great Britain--were the only holdouts.Rock disapproved of warbot manufacture, but it was his job to make sure that they were produced smoothly.

The WAR6 (terribly clever, Rock thought with a half-snarl) wasa small, domed robot, often red or blue, with a retractable spring-leg on its underside.It was equipped with three photoreceptors, spaced evenly along the circumference of the dome.An explosive charge could be mounted inside for sabotage missions.

The last item, Rock decided, couldn't really be called a robot.It was shaped like a football, but several times larger and silver.Although it had some programmed directives, it was mostly remote controlled.Mostly, it was a small bomb, used to kill a few people in a concentrated space, but not good for wide-scale bombing.Its designers, Arab weapons-specialists, called it by a name that translated roughly to "the fist."

Rock cheered up.This factory, however, was presently also one of the few that was privileged to be manufacturing the Heracles line.The wilderness reclamation robots had been the most popular by far, although multiple copies of all six robots had been manufactured and distributed all over the world.

The sight of Heracles' face was always slightly comical to Rock, who looked now on a row of twelve of them, fresh from the factory.It had taken less than a week for the factory to make them, and even then, they were being bought up faster than they could be put together.

None of these were aware yet; they were merely finished in the physical sense.Back in Tokyo was where the brain-chips were mass-produced.It was merely Rock's job to make sure that the bodies were in good condition.Roll, back in Tokyo right now, would be supervising the chip production.

Rock nodded curtly and turned to the foreman."You're clear.Good job, John."

John Brewers smiled and shook the android's hand as if both had been human."Thanks, Rock.I'll see you next week."

Rock grinned and nodded.It was Friday, and since the British didn't subscribe to the Japanese tradition of working for six and often seven days during the week, Rock was free for two days.

He activated his teleport circuitry and watched as the world disappeared in flash of luminescent blue, almost like lightning.Rock lost all sensation, and in an eyeblink, he was in the lab in Tokyo.Of course, it had taken longer than that, but as he had discovered, a being in teleport-state is not aware of itself or its surroundings.

Rock looked at the clock on the wall. It had taken him maybe twenty minutes to get this far.Dr. Light stood, back turned, fiddling with something.Rock quietly walked behind him into the welding room and took off his jacket.He was working on modifying Eddie with the teleport system as well.Perhaps he'd finish it over the weekend.

Rock took down the gray jumpsuit that was shielded for heat and put it on, followed by the ridiculous red boots (who had made them that color?) and welding gauntlets.Then he fitted the helmet with its dark visor over his head and picked up the plasma welder and lead shield.

After about half an hour of fiddling with Eddie's circuitry, Rock stood and stretched, tired.He paced around the room for a few moments and decided that in a few minutes, he would go upstairs and relax.

He walked out of the welding room to find Dr. Light still working on something.Curious, he stepped forward and looked over the doctor's shoulder.What lay on the table was obscured by a sheaf of papers.

Tilting his head to the side, Rock asked in a silly voice, "Whatchya workin' on, doc?"

Dr. Light spun around and his eyes grew wide."Blues!Jesus, where have you been?What happened?The explosion--"

Rock lifted the visors and looked at Dr. Light."Blues?Hey, I'm Rock, remember?"

Dr. Light's eyes seemed to grow wider, but then he said, "Of course."It didn't sound as if he were acknowledging Rock, but rather realizing something amazing.He looked at the floor, and then back at Rock for a moment."You'd better change.You're probably roasting in that getup."

Rock shrugged."I'm fine.What's the matter with you. though?Who's Blues?"

Dr. Light seemed to sag.After a moment of thought, he said, "Go take that stuff off and come upstairs.I'll tell you."

Rock, feeling disturbed, went into the welding room and hung the welding equipment and suit back on the wall.Taking his brown leather jacket and folding it over one arm, he walked to the lift and asked for floor 2.

There was a violent shake as the lift reached the midpoint between the sub-basement and the basement.Rock was thrown to the side and landed on his rear with a curse.Balefully, he watched the doors of the lift; their internal circuitry was automatically programmed to open up the doors in case of emergency.Sadly, they had not been built as well as many other things in Dr. Light's lab.

Rock muttered another curse, sounding more human all the time, and stood slowly.The lift seemed stable enough after the first jolt; he could be relatively sure that the cable wouldn't snap and drop him four stories to his death.Still, he frowned.

What had caused the jolt?An earthquake?An explosion?

Rock replayed the aural and optical data he had received at the moment of the elevator's malfunction, and discovered indeed that there had been a loud boom in the distance (possibly as high as two or three floors up), which he had not heard while preoccupied with staying upright.

An explosion, then. But why?

Rock paced back and forth in the confines of the elevator, frustrated.What had happened?Who--or what--had engendered the explosion?Rock stopped short.Who or what?Perhaps it had been a robot malfunction.While such imperfections were usually detected and corrected in LighTech 'bots before they were sold, it was not unheard of for one to go haywire from time to time . . .

To keep himself from panicking, Rock reviewed the information he would need to know when he returned to work on Monday.It was an exercise in absurdity: of course, he would know the information, his brain was perfect.Still, it would fill up a few microseconds of time that he might otherwise use to extrapolate upon the possible reasons for the elevator's halt.

Next week . . .

Next week, LighTech's main competitor, Sennet Robotics, was scheduled to unveil its line of three revolutionary industrial robots.Since the advent of faster-than-light space travel a few years ago, the mining of other planets' moons had become a huge industry.The demand for rare metals found in space was greater than the human workforce could handle.Naturally, robot labor had been the obvious choice.

It had been only a matter of time before Sennet Robotics released its own line of Robot Masters to compete with LighTech's.Of course, there were two major things that Sennet Robotics was lacking in comparison to LighTech: Dr. Light and Dr. Wily.The main robotechnician for Sennet Robotics--Sergei Cossack--had resigned in protest to their manufacture of warbots.Since then, their competition had been less than impressive.

Still, the new Robot Masters would be something to look out for in the competitive market of robotics; some of the technology sounded quite impressive to Rock.Most impressive was the Gemini model, which could actually synthesize a doppelganger of itself.Although the original would absorb the molecules of the second after a few minutes, the workload that could be accomplished by such a robot would be amazing.In addition to its laser-cutter, specially designed to cut the types of rock found on Saturn's moons, the Gemini model was equipped with enhanced leg springs, in case it needed to leap out of the way of falling mining equipment or rock.

As a response to LighTech's Achilles model lumberjack, Sennet had announced the release of its new Ripwood model.Rock smiled when he replayed the optical data he had obtained from the latest _Popular Technology.The Ripwood model looked more like a ninja than anything else: to poke fun at the Japan based LighTech, Rock suspected.It was mostly dressed in red with a large metal circular-saw blade attached to its forehead.Rock had read that it employed the same technology used by the bomb-weilding Hephestas model to synthesize metal blades from the air._

The last model intrigued Rock the most.It was an iron-mining robot equipped with a magnetic field generator.Although Rock did not know much about the robot itself, it was rumored that the field surrounding the robot would be strong enough to rip iron up from as far as twenty feet underground.

Of course, LighTech was still busy and had begun the construction of six other mining robots, to be released early next year.Rock's factory was to begin restructuring for the arrival of the new Robot Masters when he arrived back on Monday.

Robot Masters.That had been a term coined by Wily.Rock shook his head.Although everybody had expected the Lightech industrial robots to do well in their work, nobody, including Roll or Rock, had anticipated the ease with which they could deputize and command other robots.Within weeks, all Achilles models had tripled their output by commanding metools.Many Heracles models found that they could also easily command metools, as well as the humanoid PickAxe model produced by Yamusho Industries.

When Wily had seen how well the industrial robots commanded and deputized others, often doubling and even tripling efficiency on the worksite, he had dubbed them "_die Meisteren der Roboteren," and the name had stuck throughout the world--in whichever language was convenient for the populace to use._

Rock glared at the elevator wall and checked his internal chronometer.What was taking so long?He had waited for almost five minutes, and still nothing.He considered wrenching the doors open and climbing out, ignoring any damage to the elevator.Just as he calculated the risk of hurting himself to be only 15%, the elevator moved to the first floor and opened with a nerve-torturing grate, sending small sparks flying..

For the first time in his existence, Rock knew horror.

"_Verdamt noch mahl!" Rock whispered; a German curse he had picked up from Dr. Wily._

LighTech's main lab had been destroyed.Blackened rubble, strewn carelessly like a child's playthings, littered the ground.The blasted remains of the building belched smoke, gray and noxious, which blocked out the stars.Rock immediately stopped breathing; he didn't require oxygen as much as human beings did, and there was no telling what superheated smoke might do to his internal circuitry.

Swearing fluently in every language he knew, and even translating some invective into binary, Rock kicked broken pieces of the wall out of the way.One overriding thought dominated him: he must, at any cost, find and rescue Dr. Light.

Emotion circuits in Rock that had been dormant since his activation awoke with alarming alacrity.In less than a picosecond, Rock knew the full force of despair, anger, helplessness and rage.He violently kicked another piece of rubble and began tearing up iron bars from the destroyed walls, searching for any sign of Dr. Light.

A burst of ultra-high audible binary intruded on Rock's private storm of emotion.He turned with wrath upon the source, and saw eight EG-400 metools moving towards him.Rock rolled his eyes.It seemed as if these labor 'bots always sought out the aid of a Robot Master when things went wrong.

Much to his surprise, the metools did not slow down when they approached him.Instead, three converged on his legs in a clumsy attempt to topple him.Vaguely annoyed, Rock kicked them away.He turned to one 'bot--the red "t" on its helmet designated it as the preset task force leader--and looked at it.

In rapid binary, Rock demanded to know what had happened.

The metools regarded him with wide photoreceptors.Rock felt unease give way to alarm.He took a step back and frowned.Repeating the question in binary, Rock took another step back.Scenes of Radius' revolt in _R.U.R. played themselves over in his mind._

The lead metool extended its plasma welder.

Rock sighed with relief.How ridiculous!Robots couldn't revolt; they weren't programmed to.He felt himself start to grin wryly at his own overactive imagination."Getting more human all the time, eh?" he asked nobody in particular.

Then the metool opened fire.

Rock could barely believe his eyes when the metool, of its own accord, released a concentrated burst of ignited plasma from its welder.Superhuman and quick as he was, Rock could not dodge laser-ignited plasma fired at the speed of sound.Before he could cry out, the plasma had struck him in the left leg, blistering his synthetic skin away on contact, melting down steel cables and destroying circuit pathways.

As he fell, he could already feel his auto-repair systems begin to compensate for the damage.He landed solidly on one metool, crushing its internal circuitry beneath its super-strong titanium-alloy helmet.

_The Age of Robots has begun!March! Radius' prophetic line echoed over and over through Rock's brain.Soon, that was supplanted by an image of Dr. Light, crushed and mangled under the blasted remains of his own lab, destroyed by the robots he had slaved his whole life to develop._

"Nooo!"Rock leaped up on his good leg and kicked the lead metool between its photoreceptors, crushing crucial circuitry and destroying it.Without pausing, he grabbed the nearest of the quickly scattering metools and ripped its helmet off, exposing a nest of wires and chips.

With one vindictive punch, he smashed the metool's internal circuitry into unrecognizable trash.Rock looked on with blazing eyes as the rest of the metools fled.Slowly at first, the rage went out of him, to be replaced by fear and disgust.

What had he done?

_Robots don't kill, he had said to Wily.He looked with disturbingly blue eyes at the mangled metool in his arms.Dropping it, as if it were too hot for even him to hold, Rock fell to his knees.His damaged leg would not hold up for much longer._

"Rock?"

Battered, lab coat torn and bloodstained, Dr. Light pulled himself out from under a heavy synthetic-oaken table which had shielded him from falling debris.Rock turned listless eyes towards his creator who, stared at Rock with a mixture of horror and wonder.Though bruised and more than a little scorched, Dr. Light stood and walked slowly to Rock.

"My God, Rock!What on earth--?"

Rock looked away dully.After a moment, he asked."What happened?"

Dr. Light passed a hand across his eyes and took several deep breaths before kneeling down next to Rock."I have no idea.The metools went crazy.I was trying to get a handle on them when the whole building shook.I ran outside, thinking it was maybe a bomb threat that the HSL had actually carried out."

Rock growled.Founded in the late 1990's, the Human Supremacy League was a hate group which focused on taking jobs from robots and giving them back to human beings.Usually, this meant late-night bombings of areas where robots were stored, or destruction of nearby robotics manufacturing plants.

Light's lab alone had received over a dozen bomb threats in the past week; activity by the HSL had tripled since the unveiling of the eight Robot Masters last September.The factory at Gladstonbury for which Rock was responsible had received almost as many threats as Light personally had.Three of his workers had been beaten severely by HSL fanatics, and an entire team of metools had been sabotaged last week, setting production back almost four hours.

Quite simply, the Human Supremacy League was responsible for more damage to LighTech and all other robotics industries than anything else.Rock was an android, and knew that it was illogical to waste neural energy on the emotion of hatred.Still, the HSL and all it stood for aroused what came close to hatred in a robot in Rock.Even more, it aroused his sense of justice.At times, Rock would sit and diagnose himself, to be certain that his senses of anger and justice hadn't melded together.After all, it was so easy for humans to let that happen . . . and the result were groups like the HSL.

"But the HSL couldn't reprogram metools," Rock said.Then, with less sureness in his voice, "Could it?"

Dr. Light shrugged and winced at the motion.Rock noticed that Dr. Light's shoulder was bleeding, and so tore a strip of his own blasted jeans to bind the wound.Dr. Light smiled appreciation and answered more thoroughly."The metools are some of our simpler robots, true.But it's unlikely that anybody in the HSL would bother to take the training needed to reprogram them."

Rock looked dejectedly at the three metool "corpses."

Noticing his creation's emotional state (amazing, Light thought to himself,) Dr. Light put a hand on Rock's shoulder."Don't feel bad.You had no choice, Rock.Remember the Second Rule.You're bound to preserve your own existence whenever possible."

Logic circuits in Rock's brain digested the information and calculated a 95% chance that it provided grounds for dismissing approximately 63% of his guilt. He allowed himself a bitter smile."Thanks for the programming," he managed weakly.

Dr. Light stood slowly and fumbled in his pockets.

"What are you doing?" Rock asked.

"Calling for help," Dr. Light answered."There are still fires and injured here.I just hope that there aren't many more crazed EG's."

Rock remained sitting while his auto-repair systems feverishly worked to restore the muscle cables in his leg; the synthetic flesh was cosmetic, and could easily be replaced later.After a moment, he heard Roll's voice--tinny over the holo-link--shrill with anger and panic.

"They've hit here, too!I don't know who it was, but they did a good job."

"What happened?" Dr. Light demanded, face growing waxy pale under his frost-white beard.

Roll took a deep breath before answering."About twenty minutes ago, all our robots just stopped working.Some stopped in the middle of jobs and dropped their materials, and some just finished up and then sat motionless."

Rock shivered as the last of the overworked auto-repair systems cut out to recharge.His leg would work for standing, but running would not be a good idea at the moment.Slowly, so as not to put sudden pressure on the damaged limb, Rock stood behind Light and listened to Roll.

"Then, seven minutes and six seconds ago, one of the metools attacked somebody.A worker."Roll's voice nearly broke as she said, "A _human worker!"_

There was a moment of numb silence between Rock and Dr. Light.Roll clenched her fists in anger and frustration."Do you understand?_The robots have broken the Prime Law!"_

"Calm down," Dr. Light said, sounding strangely detached."Are you okay?"

"I got a little scorched in the arms fighting a 12-KIF, but I'm okay.The renegade robots headed south a few minutes before you called.I think they're acting on some sort of signal."Roll rubbed her arms as if she were cold, despite the flames in the background."I just called for an ambulance for the humans injured."

"Good," Dr. Light answered."Just stay logical and get home as soon as you can."

The three-dimensional image of Roll faded into millions of tiny phosphorescent sparkles and dissipated into nothing.Rock and Light stood silently for several moments before Rock finally spoke.

"We'd better call an ambulance for our injured, too.Maybe we could call Orpheus up from New Shirewick to help put out these fires.Helios might help, too."Rock clenched his fist."Then we'll find the _plentyn--" he used a Welsh curse learned from one of the factory workers in Great Britain, "--who did this to us."_

"Good idea," Dr. Light agreed with a grimace. He punched up the number for the hospital and the fire department, and within moments, sirens could be heard approaching.That accomplished, Rock saw Dr. Light hit the number code to reach Orpheus in New Shirewick, Antarctica.

A disturbing keening sound pervaded the air, and the image of the South Pole materialized in front of the pair.A pale blue sky lit by a pale, hazy sun shone over a landscape of sterile white.The bent forms of palm trees covered in ice and snow dotted the landscape.Rock noted wryly that just a decade ago, nobody would have thought palm trees could grow in Antarctica.treeborgs were a wonderful invention.

A few mutlidirectional surface scanning robots--U.S. Army issue, Rock noticed--skimmed back and forth across the ice, taking readings.Here and there, a helicopter-like equipment-transport robot dropped without warning onto the ice, to collect samples or deliver tools to an unknown destination below the horizon.

Orpheus was nowhere in sight.

Dr. Light frowned."The vid-chip is supposed to be attached to him at all times.Where is he?"After a moment, he said, "And what are we looking at?This isn't the World Water Purification Plant in New Shirewick!"

Rock hypothesized several alarming theories, but decided, for Dr. Light's benefit, to voice the least alarming."Perhaps the chips was torn off by wind . . . or something," he finished lamely.

Dr. Light shook his head and sighed.Rock knew that the doctor's body had aged 53 years, 6 months, 8 days and 14 minutes since its birth.He had always known that Dr. Light was middle-aged, if not old, by human standards.

Still, it seemed to the android as he watched his master now that he appeared far older and frailer.It saddened Rock to see his creator so dejected.Logic circuits balanced with compassion programs to produce a decision.

"Let's get back home," Rock said."There's nothing more we can do here."

*****

It was close to two hours later when the cleanup crews excavated Eddie and some of Rock's tools from the damaged laboratory.Eddie was activated a placed on duty immediately after Dr. Light and Roll had confirmed that he was free of any bugs.

Rock, for his part, spent much of the time brooding.When they had arrived home, Dr. Light found a plethora of messages awaiting him and went to his study to take them while Rock and Roll repaired themselves in the spacious living room.

Roll pushed the last flap of syntheflesh into place.

"Those are some bad cuts there," Rock observed as she winced."Are you sure your systems are functioning within green specs?"

Roll shot Rock a withering glare."My systems are fine.Don't you think I've run a self-diagnostic several times since the attack?"

Rock shrugged."I merely suggest that the damage looks as if it could be bad enough to have affected your diagnosis system as well."

Roll activated a small heating welder on her index finger and erased the seam between the two pieces of syntheflesh."Well I'm fine.Don't let your anxiety circuits get overloaded."

Not eager to continue arguing, but not willing either to let his sister win the debate, he asked."What were you doing fighting against a 12-KIF anyway?You know that if one went berserk it could easily destroy both of us; it has that high powered plasma welder.If that's not enough, it also has the shield.Your logic circuits must be faulty if--"

"It was attacking a human being," Roll snapped."I had no choice.Prime Law overrides all.At least," she amended darkly, "for us."

Rock fell to silence as he fixed the rest of his own leg.

"Besides," Roll said, "you showed about as much logic when you attacked a nest of crazed metools.I'd rather face one high-powered 12-KIF welder than eight metools--all with welders."

Rock beeped a few rapid lines of invective in binary and hexadecimal before standing and testing his new leg assembly.He was lucky; his systems were already nearly back to normal.Roll's would take weeks to repair if she let her own auto-repair systems tackle the job.Manually, it would still take a few days to complete such repairs.

Dr. Light walked slowly into the room and sat on the couch, opposite of Rock and his sister.

"Well," he sighed, "the good news is that nobody was killed, and that LighTech is covered under insurance for bombings."

Rock calculated a 97% probability that the next words out of Light's mouth would be--

"The bad news is," Dr. Light continued, proving Rock right, "that it's not just LighTech."

"What?" Rock and Roll's simultaneous exclamation rang eerily in the large living room.

"Sennet Robotics has been bombed in at least nineteen different factories," Light answered.

"But Sennet is based in the United States!" Rock exclaimed."What--"He interrupted himself as probability matrices expanded and collapsed in his mind.Calculating possibilities at the speed of light, Rock quickly came to an alarming conclusion."Is this worldwide?"

"I don't know," Light admitted.He picked up the remote to the holovid and clicked it on."I was hoping that there would be some news on it."Clicking through hundreds of channels, Light finally arrived at International 157, better known to most English speakers as CNN.

After a few stories about mounting tension between revolutionary groups in Chile, a young boy dashed onto the set with a sheaf of papers in his hand.The anchorwoman took them quickly and scanned the words.

"This just in," she announced."According to major robotics corporations LighTech, Sennet, IRM, and numerous smaller companies, the industrial robots of the world seem to have been infected with some sort of virus.Current information lists seven hundred as dead and thousands as injured."Her eyes widened as she read more."The virus apparently induces robots to go berserk after a short period of inactivity.Experts are not sure as to the cause of this outbreak of violence, and urge all robot owners to deactivate their property until the threat is ended."

"My God," Light whispered, his voice hoarse."Oh, my God!"

"Citizens of all countries are also urge to stay away from--"

The image fizzled out.

Rock leaped to his feet."What?!What happened?"Before he could start to curse the holovid, an image flickered and reappeared on the screen.

"That's better," Roll was about to say.Instead, she and every other person in the world watching CNN was silent as they stared at the strange emblem holographically floating above the projection disks on the floor.

In the upper-left hand corner of the square emblem were the letters "Dr."Superimposed over a large ring was a white "W."Rock and Roll both looked with horror, attempting to postulate another theory for the occurrence.

"Jesus," Dr. Light whispered, and quickly punched in a set of numbers on his televid.

The image dissolved and reintegrated into the features of Dr. William Albert Wily.

Rock mouthed the word no, but was speechless.

Wily raised his eyebrows."Citizens of the world," he announced."I am Dr. William Albert Wily.Many of you might recognize me for my work with my famous cousin, Dr. Light of LighTech."

Rock slowly sat, not knowing what to compute.

"This world had become increasingly dependent on robots," Dr. Wily continued."For its food, for its water, even for its air.The occurrence of an event such as this strike by the industrial robots of the world could destroy the human race."

"You have dug your own grave," Dr. Wily said quietly."Under my command, the industrial robots of this planet have been reprogrammed.They will destroy everything in their path until I tell them to stop."

Rock turned his face away.This was insane!

The televid rang, just off screen.Wily smiled and picked it up."It looks as if we're in for caller #1," he announced."Why don't we put him on the air?"

"Wily!" Light shouted into the televid."Will, you're crazy!What are your thinking?"

Dr. Wily's smile never wavered."I told you, cousin Tom.We're far too dependent on robots.If the human race doesn't throw off its self-forged yoke of slavery to its own robots, then it is doomed.I'm doing this for the good of humanity."

"You sound like one of those damn Human League activists!" Rock snapped, loud enough to be heard over the televid.

"Who is that?Rock?" Wily's smile grew, if anything, broader."Funny you should mention my good friends.I trust you received our mutual message?"

"Message?" Roll yelled."What are you talking about?"

"Roll, too?Oh, splendid, the whole family is there!" Wily clapped his hands together once."As for the message, I trust your labs were both bombed?"

"That was _your doing?You bast--"_

"Not on the air," Wily admonished, waggling his index finger."Be a good little _mädchen and don't embarrass yourself in front of billions of viewers."Wily motioned to the side, off screen."Besides, you might offend my friend's sensibilities."_

The screen panned over to take in the image of a totally unremarkable man with muddy brown hair and cinnamon-colored eyes."Meet James Walken, commander-in-chief of the Human Supremacy League."Wily seemed ecstatic."He and his upstanding friends will be helping me to prove a point.As of now, I declare world domination.If I do not receive calls of unconditional surrender from the political leaders of the following countries by 6:00 Pacific Time tomorrow morning, the Human Supremacy League and the Army of Wily will punish this world until it has learned its lesson."

As Wily listed off the countries he expected to surrender, Rock turned to Roll and Light.

"Can we get a trace on his signal?" he asked.

Light shook his head."He's too smart for that.He's probably relaying the signal through fifty different satellites and shielding it on top of that.There's no way to find out where he is."

Rock sighed and closed his eyes."The Robot Masters, at least, should be of some help.Once they get control of the smaller robots again, we can organize some sort of defense against Wily's onslaught."

Dr. Light nodded slowly."They should be safe from tampering.Wily doesn't have the original codes to erase their programming; they're with Eddie."

"Eddie!" Roll called.Looking to Light and Rock she explained, "we should keep them near us at all times.If Wily gets a hold of those, he'll be virtually invincible.Especially if he still has the backing of a bunch of fanatics like the HSL."

Eddie trundled into view, large eyes blinking with curiosity at the image of Wily, who still alphabetically listed countries.

"He's gotten to the '_R's'," Rock noted._

"Open," Light commanded absently.Eddie dutifully cranked his top open and waited patiently for Light to remove his materials.

Everybody in the room looked with blank horror at the contents of Eddie's storage compartment.

Inside was a single scrap of paper with four German words on it._Ich habe euch jetzt._

"I have you now," Rock translated.

"In case you're wondering how I plan to control you," Dr. Wily continued, "Perhaps I should introduce you to my six generals in my New Order."He swept his arm grandly and the camera panned with his motion to an image of six humanoid figures.

Rock knew that, had he been human, his heart would have stopped.

Six Robot Masters stood at attention, each looking straight forward.Each line of industrial robots created by Lightech was represented within the group.Rock swore.

"Each of these Robot Masters," Wily said, "Is in charge of a vital source of the world's supplies.The Water Purification Plant in New Shirewick is now under my domination, as are countless other facilities like it.I have gained access to the codes which allow to reprogram the robots at will, assigning them to whatever task I see fit."

"Not the prototypes," Light pleaded in a whisper.

Whether because of extremely sharp hearing or just coincidence, Wily grinned nastily."I have stolen the six prototypes for the Orpheus, Achilles, Hephestas, Heracles, Helios and Icarus lines.With these robots in control of their 'children' I can easily destroy any facility I choose."

Light put his head in his hands.Finally, he picked up the televid again."Will, you have a hell of a way of winning an argument," he said wearily."You've made your point, all right?Just stop this insanity."

"I'm afraid it's a bit too late for that, cousin," Wily answered.Turning to James Walken, he said, "Jim and I have plans for this planet, and until you are made to see the truth of our cause, you cannot be allowed to interfere."

"I have commanded my men to destroy Rock and Roll on sight," Walken said in a cold voice, less human sounding than Rock or Roll."After that, Dr. Thomas Xavier Light will stand trial for his crimes against the human race and be judged."

"You dare--!" Rock leaped from his seat, as if to pummel Walken through the holographic image.Already he could feel his restraining program reinforcing the Prime Law.

_You must not harm a human being in any manner._

Rock sank down, defeated by his own programming.

"To the New Order!" Wily cried."_Die Neue Ordnung!"_

Walken and the six Robot Master repeated his cry, fists in the air.

The screen dissolved into images of the takeover by Wily's robots.Deprived of the Laws of Robotics, the robots ran rampant through human civilization, destroying and murdering.It made Rock sick to see welding robots turned to murderers with enhanced plasma welders.Cameras mounted on leaping WAR6's recorded the destruction of entire cities.

Rock felt his circuits heat with anger as he watched holographic images of flying robots dropping from the skies and bombing men, women and children indiscriminately.Fire raged through the streets, ignited by the renegade robots.

Worse still were the images of the Robot Masters.

Achilles models dashed through human settlements, severing limbs, collapsing buildings and maiming innocents.Armies of Hephestas models rampaged through cities, leaving only blackened craters and the smell of ozone in their wake.Orpheus models left blasts of arctic, impossible cold to freeze the air and brittle structures for the oncoming Helios models which blasted everything into cinders.

Worst of all were the images of Heracles and Icarus models.Faces that Rock had only seen in joy or joking now looked on, cruelly calculating as they electrocuted humans to death and smashed entire city blocks with a few well-thrown boulders.Rock felt his sense of justice begin to override everything except the Prime Laws.

The final blow came when the holographic sphere went dark and the "Dr. W" sign floated in the center.Wily's voice, deliberately menacing and heavily accented, announced the deadline for all countries again.

Then darkness.

*****

Rock was the first to speak.

"We've got to stop him."

Roll leaped up."Are you crazy?You'll get yourself deactivated for sure!_Dead!"_

Dr. Light was still holding the scrap of paper which read, in German, "I've got you now."

"It's the just thing to do," Rock said, voice shaking."I have to do something to stop him."

Dr. Light slowly stood."Yes, of course.We must start immediately."

"Start what?" Roll had her fists both clenched."You're going to get us all killed!"

"What would you suggest?" Rock demanded, whirling on her, "Stand by and do nothing?"

"Of course not!"Roll's eyes blazed."But we _can't harm Wily.It's impossible.I wouldn't change that even if I could.How are we supposed to do anything?Let the humans handle it, and we'll offer technical assistance or something."_

"You have the right idea, Roll," Light said slowly."You cannot harm Wily.I, too, would not have that change.However, human beings cannot take the punishing that robots would deal to them.Only other robots can weaken Wily's strength until he is sufficiently weak to be dealt with by human beings."

Rock turned towards the stairs that would lead to Dr. Light's private lab."Then we have to get started on it right away."

"It?" Dr. Light seemed flustered.

"The new robot!" Rock replied."The one that'll serve as a prototype of the others to defeat Wily.We need to start _now!"_

"I agree," Roll said."Now is the time to act.Anything else will come too late."

Dr. Light shook his head."I'm afraid neither of you understands.We're not making a new robot."

"But you said--"

"We're going to modify one of _you to be the champion."Dr. Light's eyes looked at once sad but triumphant."I had hoped you could both live peaceful lives, as I never did during World War Three.That is now only a dream."_

Roll put her hands on her hips."Both of us can go."

"No," Dr. Light protested."There's not enough time for that.Only one."

"I volunteer," Rock and Roll said simultaneously.

"Roll," Dr. Light answered, "the damage dealt to you will take far too long to repair without worrying about upgrading you as well.I'm afraid Rock is the only choice I can make."

Roll fumed."You're just saying that because he's a boy and I'm--"

"--a robot," finished Light."I'm _not being sexist.You both are equal in physical capabilities under ideal circumstances.However, these are hardly ideal circumstances.Rock simply has less damage to his frame and systems than you."_

Roll kept her fists clenched, but eventually lowered her eyes."I see the logic in your statement.It makes sense for Rock to take the role of defender at this point."She frowned."But after we are finished with his upgrades, I demand that we give me the same capabilities in case Rock is damaged."

Dr. Light nodded.With a wry twist of his lip, he answered, "I see the logic in _your statement.We will proceed with construction and design immediately."Turning to Rock, he said, "Though your sister may envy you, I do not.You are already superhuman in your abilities.To be given more power is to be given more responsibility.In making you more than superhuman--mega-human perhaps--you will gain more responsibility than perhaps any other person on this world."_

Rock sighed."And to have such responsibilities is to have hardly any choice in what you do."

"You understand," Dr. Light said approvingly."From this day forth, you will no longer be merely Rock.Rock is your superhuman name.Rockman is the name you were created with, and as you reach you full mega-human potential you shall be called Rockman."

"I prefer Rock," Rock said.

Dr. Light chuckled."We'll see.Now let's get to work."

*****

Over the next few days, Rock learned to hate the name of Rockman.

To him, it symbolized everything wrong about being the champion against Wily.Wily was Rock's friend--or had been at one time.Rock just couldn't force himself to believe that he was totally evil.There must have been something that happened . . .

Then there were always the Robot Masters.They, too had been Rock's friends at one point.He had helped to build them!It was a crime against his conscience and everything just; to have to kill his own best friends was wrong.

Since the bombing at Lightech's main lab, Rock had encountered seven more renegade robots, and had been forced to destroy each one.After each "death," Rock vowed he would never get used to it.It was a crime to end life--even unintelligent cybernetic life--and Rock hated himself for it, and hated Dr. Wily for forcing him into this situation.

Rock glared out the window from the schematics he was working on.

Above the battered, scorched and smoking Tokyo, the sky was midnight blue.

Then there was James Walken and his damn Human Supremacy League.Rock had calculated for days now on a way to find a loophole in his programming that would allow him to kill--directly or indirectly--this abominable man who preached hatred and intolerance, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of factory workers and deactivation of thousands of industrial robots.

The last bloodstained shreds of light vanished as night swallowed a sporadically glittering Tokyo.

Rock held up the outer shell for a half-completed plasma weapon--to work on the same principal as a plasma welder--and sighed as if his heart would shatter.

Nobody who saw would have guessed that Rock was other than a deeply troubled young man with black hair and large, sad blue eyes.


	4. Hunter

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Hunter

Rock looked balefully at the helmet. 

It was truly a work of art, as every other invention of Dr. Light's. Midnight blue burnished titanium-alloy steel made up the body--a metal copy of a World War II leather bomber's helmet. The pale blue crest along the top was made of a different metal, containing the communications module, a newly enhanced teleport-chip, and several damage-system control chips. 

The inside of the helmet was lined with a sort of "neuro-electric sponge" as Dr. Light had explained. It was a substance that would bond the helmet to Rock's titanium skull and directly interpret his calculations. In human terms, it could read his thoughts. 

An added brainstorm of Dr. Light's had placed a matter-transfer chip in the crest as well, so that when the helmet was not in use, it would retract itself into Rock's skull structure. It could still be taken on and off like any normal helmet, but in emergency, it could instantaneously materialize and save Rock's internal circuitry from severe damage if needs be. 

Truly, it was a work of art, from the weapon-control and color-shifter chip to the pale blue aural enhancement disks, decorated with a gold foil center and placed directly over his ears. 

Still, Rock hated it. 

"Brooding again?" Roll asked as she sauntered into the room. 

"I hate killing," Rock spat. "I hate everything about it. Thanks to _this_--" he gestured at the helmet, "--it's going to be my destiny from now on. I have to destroy my friends that I helped create." He turned smoldering eyes on his sister-android. "Because of this helmet and everything it means, I'll never know peace again! I'm doomed to kill my own kind. Now, tell me again why I shouldn't brood!" 

Roll clapped her hands slowly, sarcastically. "Very dramatic. Not to mention unnecessary. You should be thankful that _you_ were chosen to be our champion against chaos. If not for you _and_ that helmet you despise so much, that madman Wily would--" 

"He's not mad!" Rock snapped, smashing his fist down on the table and crushing its steel surface as if it had been no more than tinfoil. "He's just misled! If I can just talk to him, _reason_ with him--" 

Roll grabbed his arm forcefully. "Listen, Rock. I know you're upset; we all are! But you can't let this get in the way. Justice demands--" 

"Justice," Rock spat, full of contempt. "There's no such thing. Just a myth perpetuated by fools and poets." 

Roll stepped back, her face a mixture of hurt and shock. "Rock, you have to keep hope." Without further conversation, she picked up a fallen component for the half-finished plasma-buster and left the room. 

Rock turned on a blinking Eddie. "What are you looking at?" he snarled. 

Eddie blinked large photoreceptors and trundled away in search of safer territory to patrol. 

"Rock?" Dr. Light cautiously opened the door. 

Rock turned slowly. Had he been human, his body would have evidenced clearly his lack of sleep. As humans viewed it, Rock did not need to sleep; still, he required approximately four hours out of every seventy two-hours to cease activity and let himself recharge. After that period of time, his circuits began to wear down and his motions became lethargic. 

"Rock, you haven't--" Dr. Light caught himself from using the word 'slept.' "You haven't stopped to recharge in over five days now. You need to slow down and let up some." 

"Not yet," Rock said, his voice chip slurring the speech. 

"In another hour or so, you'll shut down entirely," Light protested. "Get some rest. I'll work on the plasma buster design." 

Rock inwardly acknowledged the logic of the suggestion. Still, a part of him would not admit defeat. He _must_ keep up his work. Dr. Wily _must_ be saved from himself, before he did something that could not be repaired. 

An errant thought fluttered through Rock's electro-neural pathways. 

"Who is Blues?" he asked. 

Dr. Light started guiltily at the question. "Blues?" 

"You called me Blues while I was welding Eddie the other day, just before the attack." Rock heard his own words running together, like ink in the rain. He was surprised at his own stubbornness, but refused to recharge. "Why?" 

Dr. Light sat slowly. "That is something you would be better off not knowing until the situation with Will is resolved." 

Slowly, Rock calculated the probability that Dr. Light's use of Dr. Wily's first name indicated a subconscious desire to once again be friends and partners. After seven microseconds (extremely slowly for an android), he decided that it was just as likely to be habit as anything else. 

"I will not rest until I know," Rock said. Technically, Dr. Light had not given any commands yet, so he was not in violation of the Third Rule. Of course, he realized, he would not physically be able to resist a direct command by any human being. Dimly, he wondered what he would do if Dr. Wily ordered him to kill another human being. 

"Rock, I order you to get some rest and forget about this thing with Blues." Dr. Light looked sorry, even deeply sad as he gave the command. Rock would have to obey. His automatic circuitry would force him to. 

"No." 

Several moments of stunned silence followed Rock's refusal. He wasn't sure if he was more surprised, or Dr. Light was. 

"No?" Dr. Light shook his head. "Oh, no. Not again." 

Rock looked up. "How . . . ? How did I--?" 

Dr. Light held his head in his hands. After a few moments, he looked up, his eyes damp. "You are experiencing a condition--I'm not sure if it's a malfunction or not--that I was sure I had corrected." 

"What?" Rock felt his panic circuits heat, even in his fatigue. "Dr. Light, how could I possibly override my own programming?" 

Dr. Light made no answer for several moments. In the background, upstairs, the holovid could be heard, reporting yet more robot violence, but still no action from Dr. Wily himself on this, the fifth day of the world's refusal to surrender. 

Flickering shadows from a slowly failing light bulb limned the room in eerie, weird shades of violet and gray. Rock looked intently into Dr. Light's blue eyes and realized, for the first time, that they were identical to his own. 

"Your brain," Dr. Light answered slowly, "is one of three that I created in such a manner. In its own right, it is far more sophisticated than any of the other robots' brains. Roll has the other brain like it." 

"I don't compute," Rock said. Had his language abilities not deteriorated with lack of rest, he would have remembered to use the term 'understand.' 

"Your brain is different from the other Robot Masters' in that it can learn and adapt to new situations." Dr. Light held up a hand at Rock's beginning protest. "The other Robot Masters can receive information, store it away, and dredge it up again for future reference. However, they are only robots." 

"So am I," Rock answered. 

"No. You are somehow . . . more than a robot." Dr. Light wrung his hands. "You can learn, and predict complicated projections according to your newly acquired knowledge. You can be lost in self-reflection for hours! Rock, you're far more of a philosopher than many humans. You can _think_." 

"I am a robot." Rock stated the one truth he knew. 

Dr. Light shook his head. "You are an android. There is a difference." 

Semi-flexible crystalline lenses in Rock's eyes lost definition and slipped into an unfocused position. "And Helios? Icarus? The others?" 

Dr. Light shrugged. "Also more than mere robots. Dr. Wily and I knew that you were far more advanced than them, even before your own brain started to modify itself." He folded aged hands. "I suppose the correct technical term for the six Robot Masters would be 'androbots.' More than robots, less than androids. You and Roll are unique amongst them." 

Rock sat back, stunned. "Roll and I . . . and the third is Blues?" 

"Blues," Dr. Light repeated, as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. "Blues was the experiment. He was the prototype for you and Roll. Originally, there were to be hundreds of robots just like you and Roll. Blues changed my mind about that. He damn near made me change my mind about _you_. I was too far along in developing you and Roll to quit, though." 

"Request more data," Rock slurred. His optical feedback was becoming less and less reliable: blurry and out of proportion. 

"I made you to look exactly like Blues," Dr. Light answered. "You and Blues are brothers. When he disappeared, I thought I would go mad. I never quite got over that loss. And so, when I saw you that day, thinking about Blues, I thought he had returned." 

Rock's eyes shut to save power. He could feel his muscle cable involuntarily relaxing. "How did he . . ." 

Rock fell asleep. 

Dr. Light shook his head sadly. "I wanted to spare you from this. Both of you." 

"Both of us?" 

Dr. Light spun around to see Roll standing silently in the doorway, arms folded. 

"Damnation!" Dr. Light snapped. "Do you always listen in on private conversations?" 

"I think you could use some sleep, too," Roll said wryly. "You're getting irritable." 

"How much did you hear?" Dr. Light asked. 

"Everything. Is it true, then? I can hardly believe that we can defy our programming." Roll cocked her head. "Can we?" 

"Only the first two rules," Dr. Light answered. "I didn't want a repeat of Blues, so I installed a chip that would destroy either of you if you should try to harm a human being." 

"I see." Roll's face was serious. "And what _did_ happen with Blues?" 

Dr. Light frowned more deeply. "He wasn't stable. His brain adapted itself very quickly to new situations, and soon overrode its original programming. He disobeyed me from time to time, even against direct commands, when he was absorbed in a project. He broke the Second Rule numerous times, acting irrationally and often dangerously." 

"He whistled incessantly," Dr. Light continued with a sad smile. "Drove me crazy. I haven't been able to master whistling in over fifty years, and my creation had it licked in the first day of his life!" Blue eyes misted over as the doctor recalled the minor-key, jaunty whistling which had pervaded the lab's halls for months on end. "Finally, he went insane." 

"_Insane?!_" Roll's eyes grew wide. "Can a robot go insane?" 

"No," Dr. Light answered. "But an android can, apparently. The emotions chip I inserted in Blues was evidently too potent. That, coupled with his constantly shifting brain structure, caused the nearest thing I've ever seen to insanity in an android." 

"But you haven't told me _what happened_," Roll reminded him. 

"True." Dr. Light stretched and yawned from fatigue. "There was a lab accident one day. Blues was wearing the same type of welding suit that I still keep in the lab." 

"That gray one," Roll nodded. 

"Yes. We--Dr. Wily and I--were testing his new welding shield." Memories of the an impossibly bright light and the roar of chain-reacting plasma explosions flooded into Dr. Light's anguished mind. "Blues was showing signs of getting better, and Dr. Wily and I had high hopes for him. That day, he held the prototype for a new plasma-burst-proof shield--we now use the shields for the 12-KIF line--and Dr. Wily and I operated a high-intensity plasma-burst welder." 

"A malfunction occurred." It was Roll who stated this. 

"Yes." Dr. Light closed his eyes. "The plasma didn't travel in a concentrated stream as it was meant to. Instead, a leak in the transfer pipes caused it to flood the room. If Dr. Wily and I hadn't been wearing our environment suits for the test, we would have died instantly from the heat. When the laser-ignition system kicked in, the room went up in flames." 

"Neither of us ever saw Blues again." 

Silence dropped, heavy and oppressive, over the room. 

Finally, Roll turned to the sleeping Rock. "Is he in danger of such a condition infecting his systems?" 

"His circuits are more stable than Blues' were," Dr. Light answered. "Still, this situation with Dr. Wily is aggravating his emotions center more than was meant to be dealt with by a single chip. We must watch him very carefully." 

Roll shook her head sadly. "It's a crime." 

"In more than one respect," Dr. Light agreed. "I need some rest. Are you still charged?" 

"Yes." Roll folded her arms. "Unlike others, at least _I_ know when to get sleep when I need it." 

"Good. Work on the multi-phase matter-sysnthesis adapter chip for the plasma buster. Get a working schematic for me by morning. And see what you can do about microsprings in the left boot." Dr. Light waved a tired farewell. "I'll be down in the morning." 

"Sleep well," Roll said, sitting down at a drawing table. 

* * * * * 

Twelve time zones and a hemisphere away, the sun rose on Skull Castle. 

A monument to five days' unceasing labor by thousands of robots and almost as many enslaved human beings, Skull castle squatted like a cancerous growth, nestled in the peaks of the majestic Andes Mountains in Chile. 

Dr. Wily--robotlike himself after as many days' labor in an underground laboratory--stood on the ramparts of the fortress. Built in concentric rings, at first glance the castle looked orderly, sterile . . . robotic. However, on closer inspection, an observer would observe a madman's nightmare of twists and turns that led sometimes nowhere and other times to clever--if not openly fiendish--booby traps. 

Consisting of four rings in all, each to be guarded by a sentinel of terrifying abilities, Skull Castle would be virtually impregnable, even by a Robot Master! Laser and plasma cannons bristled from the steel and granite walls, aimed in every imaginable direction. Energy fields and steel protected each ring from intrusion from above; the only way through each ring was first through a heavily guarded tunnel, then into a command center where each sentinel was station, and finally through hidden, triple-reinforced titanium doors. 

From anybody else, such measures would have been considered paranoid. 

For Dr. Wily, whose enemy was an entire planet, it was barely adequate. 

Finally, giving the fortress its name, a massive, white-painted titanium shield protected the front entrance-shaped like a gargantuan human skull. 

Dr. Wily laughed into the cold mountain wind. Thousands of human workers had perished in forced labor to build this castle, but what concern of his was that? Robot Masters and that distasteful Human Supremacy League--with which Dr. Wily only consorted because of his need for human beings in some operations--had been responsible for the deaths of other humans. 

Wily, for his part, had stayed locked up in his laboratory, which had been the first room built, in a record fifteen minutes. His first few tasks were complete; now he only needed to concentrate on building more robots, which was an easy task for him. 

Wily looked down from the ramparts to the central ring--enclosed completely in steel and concrete. The only way to his private laboratory was through that heavily shielded center ring, through several teleport devices and a huge array of defensive robots and energy weapons, and finally into the bowels of the earth, where Dr. Wily's latest creation lay. 

Specifically, in the depths of the armored fortress lay two vehicles. One, the core control vehicle, was a disc about twenty feet in diameter. In layman's terms, it was a flying saucer, in the simplest definition. The bottom was painted gold and the top a metallic crimson. Still, it was much more than a mere antigravity transport device. 

From within his saucer, Wily could control the actions of each Robot Master if he chose. A myriad of display screens could be programmed to show him every square inch of Skull Castle via remote holographic cameras positioned periodically throughout the fortress. 

The second vehicle was a heavily shielded war machine, bulbous and ungainly. The cockpit space was a large socket, into which his flying saucer was meant to fit. Despite its mass and bulk, it was equipped with an antigravity hover system which would allow it to float as if it weighed no more than a feather. 

Although it was only equipped with four heavy plasma cannons, the machine was virtually indestructible for all its plasma-proof and laser-reflective armor. Nothing short of an atomic reaction would destroy the ship. 

That blasted ignoramus James Walken had dubbed Wily's prize--a creation of amazing power and limitless abilities--the "Wilymachine." Wily hated the name, and had privately vowed to feed Walken to his robots when the time was right. 

Now, six days after Wily had given his ultimatum to the world, it was time to strike. 

He reached into his lab coat-pocket and removed a small remote-control. With the flick of a small, gray switch on this remote, Wily would command all robots under his control to destroy everything in their path. 

Taking a few seconds to savor the poetic justice of it all, Wily flipped the switch. 

Miles away, chaos erupted. 

Still, here in the remotest parts of the Andes, all was silent but for the clanking of construction equipment and the howling of the wind. 

Wily placed the remote in his pocket again, and removed his personal teleport device. It only worked to take him back to his lab, but it was still something. Dr. Light had been a fool to fear the effects of the teleporter on human matter! If anything, Dr. Wily felt that he understood things more quickly and easily since using the teleporter. 

With a high cackle that rang with insanity, Dr. Wily vanished in a stream of white energy. 

On the ground level, James Walken watched warily. 

"That teleport machine is screwing with his mind," he muttered to a scarred and red-haired lieutenant. "If he keeps that up, his brain will be permanently scrambled for sure." He rubbed his chin. "Alert all human personnel to keep an eye out for him. I don't trust that German bastard any farther than I could throw him." 

"You could throw him pretty far, sir," the lieutenant chuckled. "He's just a crazy old man." 

Walken laughed and the lieutenant left to spread the word amongst the troops of the Human Supremacy League. 

Twenty feet away, hidden under rubble, a surveillance 'bot recorded the conversation with damning clarity and relayed it to a seething Dr. Wily. 

* * * * * 

Roll poked her head into the lab. 

"It's started," she said. "Whatever Wily was busy with before, he's apparently done now." 

Rock, fully recharged after eight hours of sleep, dropped the small laser welder. "Oh no. Does Dr. Light know?" 

"He's upstairs watching CNN right now," Roll answered. "Do you want to see?" 

Rock picked up the completed helmet, and grimaced. "Better not. It'll just get me angrier, and I don't think I need that right now." 

"Good thinking," Roll answered. "I'll bring Dr. Light back down with me after we've watched to see if there's anything new." 

Rock declined to answer as Roll ascended back upstairs. After a six days of nonstop work on the new battle armor he would soon don, Rock knew every facet of the suit. The only unfinished component of the armor was the "plasma-buster"--an amazing variation on the standard military plasma-cannon utilized by most armies around the world. 

Plasma--a form of matter with less order than gas--was highly unstable as matter, and therefore easily induced to carry massive amounts of kinetic energy. When ignited by a strong energy source--in the buster's case, a corundum pulse-laser--moving plasma became a stream (or sphere, depending on how tightly you focused its output) of concentrated destruction. 

By far more powerful than all but the most massive laser-cannon, plasma weapons were still very much an experimental field. Equipping himself with a miniature plasma cannon was, Rock realized--a near suicidal risk. 

The raven-haired android lifted the half-completed plasma-buster from the work table. 

Although the atom-stream "laser"--invented in early 1997--had been installed it was still not hooked up to the cables that would graft themselves to Rock's internal fusion generator. A corundum rod--in this case, ruby--made up the main body of the ignition pulse laser. In front of the ruby rod was a crystalline lens for focusing the laser beam and thus determining the spread factor of the ignited plasma. 

This was just the prototype, of course. Rock carefully set it down. It would have to be thoroughly--even exhaustively--scanned by a molecular synthesizer, so that its understructure could be duplicated and implanted via matter-transfer chamber into each of his arms. 

In comparison, the rest of the battle armor was extremely simple. 

Titanium-alloy "diamond-web" material had been used to construct--not at little cost--the flexible armor which Rock would wear on his torso, arms and thighs. Steel boots would fit over his lower legs, covering up to his knees. Ballooning out like an Achilles model's feet, the boots were meant to help Rock in leaping high and landing safely. Microsprings in the sole aided in both running and jumping. 

Of course, there was the helmet which Rock loathed, and the pair of gauntlets. The gauntlets served a double purpose. First, they provided the raw metals and materials that would be needed for the matter-transfer system of the shape-shifting plasma-busters to operate. Second, they would protect Rock's hands--by far the most delicate piece of hardware he possessed--from injury. 

Rock wrinkled his nose. By far, the most ridiculous piece of armor he would wear was what appeared to be a pair of steel underwear. Although he and Dr. Light had both agreed that such a design would help protect his abdomen and leg joints while still allowing for optimum movement, Rock still shuddered at thought of actually wearing it. 

Still, if giving up some of his dignity was the cost of bringing Dr. Wily back to his senses and saving the world from conquest by those damnable Human Supremacy Leaguers, Rock had no real objections. 

All the components were stained a metallic midnight-blue, with the exception of the outer thermal protection suit. Nearly skin-tight over the flexible titanium armor Rock would wear, the pale, frost-blue thermal suit was intended to keep him from overheating in hot climates or freezing in cold ones. 

"Mega-human," Rock mused aloud, repeating the phrase which Dr. Light had used to describe Rock's abilities once he donned the armor and accepted the necessary upgrades to become a fighting super-robot. With a wry twist of his lip, he muttered, "So much for Superman." 

"How about Mega Man?" Dr. Light had entered the room so quietly that Rock hadn't noticed. Lined eyes crinkling as he smiled tiredly, the old doctor sat on the work table. "We're nearly finished, Rock. A few more modifications to that plasma buster, another ten hours of molecular scanning, and we'll be ready to put you in the matter-transfer capsule. 

"Yeah." Rock ran hands through a mane of unruly black hair. "Yeah, almost done. Then what?" 

"You put that training to work!" Dr. Light answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

And perhaps it was. In addition to working on his weapons and armor, Rock had been taking instruction from as many martial arts instructors he could find. Because of his perfect memory and his ability to mimic moves perfectly within only a couple tries, Rock had virtually mastered every fighting technique taught in Tokyo. 

He and Dr. Light had even formulated a plan. 

Exhaustively analyzing the design for every line of androbot stolen by Dr. Wily, Roll, Rock and Dr. Light had finally discovered certain weaknesses within each Robot Master. Although it would not be easy to defeat such powerful enemies, Rock remained optimistic. 

At least, as optimistic as was possible in such a situation. 

Dr. Light fiddled with the plasma buster in silence for several minutes before looking up and announcing in a deadpan voice, "Finished." Without wasting time, he placed the plasma-buster inside the wire-wrapped, circuit-encrusted molecular scanner. The massive supercomputer, with calculating abilities even greater than Rock's or Roll's, immediately began its calculations. 

"There's nothing more we can do now," Dr. Light said. "Let's take a break." 

Rock nodded wearily. Of course, Roll would soon badger them all into beginning work on _her_ armor, but that could wait for a few hours. For now, Rock could afford the leisure of siting back and relaxing his circuits. 

He allowed himself a wry grin. It was amazing how human he'd grown; next he'd be wanting to eat! 

* * * * * 

Rock looked up. 

A flicker of motion caused him to stop his work and scan the lab quickly. He as sure that he had heard a sound . . . 

Dismissing it as overworked circuits, Rock leaned back. He had been working on Roll's armor for close to eight hours now. In fact, the plasma-buster scan should be finished. After he finished his work on this piece of armor, he would go to the next room and test the finished results. 

Another sound made Rock spring to his feet. Maybe he as being paranoid, but this whole thing with Dr. Wily had made him very nervous; every time he heard a bolt fall to the floor, he was sure it would be one of the renegade Robot Masters, here to seal his doom. 

"Who's there?" Rock snapped, switching to infrared sight. 

His sensors detected a human form behind a stack of empty crates which had contained the titanium-alloy "diamond-web" needed for the flexible body armor. The human being was hunched over, and holding several metallic objects. 

"You remember me, don't you Rock?" 

Rock froze. The voice was Dr. Wily's. 

"Wily?" he asked, taking a step forward. Forcing his emotion circuits to remain passive, he said, "How did you get in here?" 

Wily stepped out from behind the crates, and Rock switched to normal vision again. He stared, wide-eyed and silent at the German doctor. 

Dr. Wily held a wicked looking laser-pistol, aimed straight for Rock's head. In his other hand, he held a strange device which flickered with a myriad of colored lights, which twinkled like distant stars. 

"Teleport device," Dr. Wily explained. "It's only good for one trip here and back, but it'll be worth it. You're coming with me." Rock noticed that Dr. Wily spoke in German, rather than his customary habit of speaking Japanese when he spoke to Rock and Roll. 

"Teleport? Dr. Wily, you know that's not reliable for organic matter transfer. You could be--" 

"Killed?" Dr. Wily waved his pistol menacingly. "I seem to have survived so far." 

Rock narrowed his eyes. The overtones to Dr. Wily's voice were abnormal, and suggested mental instability. However, he calculated a 97% chance that voicing such a hypothesis would cause Wily to act irrationally. 

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Dr. Wily snapped. "Just like that damn James Walken!" 

"I never said that," Rock protested. 

"Good." Wily's gaze lit upon the unfinished armor. His voice filling with rage, he screamed, "What's this?! Armor? _Weapons?_ You thought to defy me?" 

Had Rock been human, he would have felt the need to swallow as his heart beat sped up. Instead, he gestured helplessly. "What would you have us do? Your demands are irrational." 

"Irrational?" Dr. Wily released the safety on the laser gun. "You mean 'crazy.' That's the word you're searching for, right? Get over here. When I'm done with you, you'll be the greatest general of all!" 

Rock felt a shiver run through his body. Wily intended to kidnap him and turn him against Dr. Light and the rest of the world! He stood stock still. He could not attack Wily, but he was afraid that if he raised any alarm, Wily would start shooting. 

"I see your programming is starting to fail; I gave you a direct order. Get over here." Dr. Wily gritted his teeth. 

"No." 

"What do you mean, no?" Dr. Wily's finger tightened on the trigger. "If you come over here, I will not hurt you. You will not be violating the Second Law by obeying me." 

"I know," Rock answered. "My answer stands." 

Wily's face turned ashen. "You--you _have _to obey me! You're a robot!" 

Rock turned his fierce blue eyes directly on Wily's hard brown ones. "I am more than a robot." 

"Not for long." 

Only Rock's superhuman reflexes saved him from the beam of laser energy invisible to all modes of sight except for infrared. He threw himself under the work table and cringed as superheated bits of molten plastic and steel burst from the wall as Wily's bolt struck. 

"Bastard!" Wily screamed hoarsely. "I'll take care of you! You and Tom and your stinking sister!" 

With a half-snarl, Wily activated his teleporter and vanished back to Skull Castle in a beam of white energy. 

The lab door burst open and Roll jumped into the room holding a conventional "slugthrower" automatic pistol. After a few moments, Dr. Light arrived as well. Both looked at Rock. 

"What happened?" Roll demanded. "We heard a commotion and the auto-alarms reported laser-weapon fire." 

Rock sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall. 

"Wily," he answered. "Wily was here. We have to hurry; he knows about the armor now." 

Dr. Light shook his head sadly. "Tell us more as we prepare for the matter transfer." 

* * * * * 

Incandescent light enveloped Rock. 

Rock stood rigidly in the matter-transfer/synthesis chamber. Stripped down to gym shorts, he held his wrists and feet against the necessary contact points in the sensor-studded cylindrical chamber. 

A tingling sensation crept into the back of his cranial circuits. 

Warmth flooded into his arms and legs, accompanied shortly by stabbing pain. Rock gasped aloud at the sudden assault on his neuro-circuits. This was an unexpected side-effect of the matter-transfer! 

Tears did not spring to Rock's eyes; he had no tears glands. Still, he closed his eyes and grimaced. It was better to keep his eyes closed, anyway. That throbbing light could eventually overload his optical sensors, and Rock was worried enough about the load that was being dumped on his neuro-sensors. 

Contrary to popular opinion, robots felt pain; it was a useful tool in the workplace. After all, if a robot got its limb stuck in a piece of rotating machinery, pain would not only warn the robot of the great danger posed to its system, but also activate the Second Rule of Robotics. 

Another involuntary gasp escaped from Rock's lips as he felt the new and totally _alien_ understructure of the twin plasma-busters graft themselves to each of his arms. He could literally _feel_ the reorganization of his neuro-circuits to accommodate the structure of the plasma weapon. 

To distract himself from the pain, Rock wondered if Dr. Light had known what kind of pain would be involved in a matter transfer/synthesis operation. If he had, Rock understood why the doctor had elected not to tell him beforehand. Although Rock knew that he himself could break the Third Rule of Robotics (though only with great difficulty) he did not know about the second, and had no wish to find out. It frightened him enough to discover that one of three unshakable truths in his life had just been proven false. 

A the moment, Rock wished that robots did not feel pain, despite the logic of its utilization. "Mega human" he might be, he thought with a twitch at the corners of his mouth, but not totally invincible. Prolonged exposure to this kind of pain could wear down his neuro-circuits. A man under such pressure would have passed out; Rock just kept feeling greater and more intense pain as time passed. 

Strangely, he began to think of Blues. Roll had relayed to him what Dr. Light had told her of Rock's mysterious brother, presumed deceased. It was obvious to Rock that Blues had suffered a circuit overload which shorted out his logic circuits, and generated the irrational and unpredictable behavior which humans referred to as insanity. The question Rock asked himself every 2.5 picoseconds was "how?" 

A number of alarming possibilities formed in his mind. Once he calculated them, he began to wonder if all the data he would need to absorb for his upcoming task would be too much for his microprocessors to handle. What if he went insane like Blues? 

A bolt of energy coursed through Rock, leaving him bereft of strength for several full seconds. 

It was over. Rock blinked and took several deep, ragged breaths. He had not realized until now that for several minutes he had been depriving his system of the oxygen/nitrogen mixture upon which his internal fusion reactor depended for fuel. 

Taking a few ginger steps from the matter-transfer cylinder, Rock marveled at the novel feeling that the hew leg hydraulics induced. It felt to Rock as if he were walking on springs. Although that was essentially what he was doing, he reminded himself, it still felt foreign. 

Inside the matter transfer chamber, the temperature had been close to 40 degrees Centigrade. Rock's coolant systems had been working constantly to keep him from overheating in such heat. Now, as the slowly adjusted, Rock shivered. 

Roll handed him his faded orange robe which he had elected to wear today. It seemed fitting to him that he wear the clothes he had been born in, since he was, in effect, being reborn as something more. 

He nodded silent thanks and shrugged the robe on over his shoulders. 

Experimenting, he concentrated on the plasma-buster schematics and flipped a microscopic switch inside his right arm with a thought. A chill ran up his arm as the plasma-buster structure shivered. With a faint sound like rushing water, the skin of his forearm stretched and re-formed into the steel outside of the plasma buster. The internal components of the buster clicked swiftly into place, and a small crimson light flickered, indicating full arming status. 

Dr. Light, over to the right, took a swift intake of breath. Despite all his theoretical work and diligence, it was still wonderful and something of a nice surprise to see one of his inventions brought to life. Even, he reminded himself sourly, if it was something as odious as a weapon of war. 

Still silent, Rock looked grimly from hand to hand. His left hand still looked human, though he could feel the arm-cannon understructure in its skeletal frame. One his right arm was the new and foreign plasma-buster, as much a symbol of everything he hated as the helmet. 

From the outside, the egg-shaped plasma buster didn't look like much. The only visible features on it were the golden energy meter--a display of the damage Rock could sustain before the compensation by his internal fusion reactor overheated his system and exploded him--and the small crystal-lens barrel, which was maybe two inches in diameter. 

"Test it," Dr. Light urged. His voice sounded too loud, almost indecent, after the silence which Rock and Roll had maintained. 

"All right," Rock answered. Sighing, he turned to the deactivated renegade metool. shell. Although the program had been deactivated and the body of the metool to badly damaged to repair, Rock still felt like a murderer blasting the empty hunk of steel. 

Activating the microcircuits which would have moved his right index finger, Rock was rewarded by a sudden surge of energy. 

The plasma-buster bucked on his arm like a living thing, and a hurtling sphere of ignited plasma blasted the metool's hard-hat . . . 

. . . and bounced right off. Rock's eyes widened as the plasma blasted ricocheted right off the metool's "helmet" at an angle and tore a huge chunk of the lab wall away, setting of a brazen choir of off-key klaxon alarms. 

Dr. Light swore. "I forgot about that. Remember that certain robots are built to withstand a plasma blast in case their plasma welder overloads. I don't know what Wily has done to the Robot Masters he's reprogrammed, but you'll have to watch out for it." 

Rock nodded agreement. Taking aim and this time bracing his right arm with his left, he fired the destructive plasma bolt right between the deactivated metool's unblinking photoreceptors. 

In a shower of melted steel and superheated metal, the metool exploded, flames reaching for nearly a foot in radius around it. The rubble generated by its destruction landed all over the lab, some striking Rock in the legs. 

"Seems to work," Roll commented wryly. 

"Yeah," Rock agreed. After a moment's dark reflection on the situation, he continued, "I guess I'd better put the rest of the armor on and get busy, before Dr. Wily pulls anything else." 

Immediately, the lab became a flurry of activity. Dr. Light dashed back and forth, retrieving items and preparing pieces of armor as if _he_ were the lab assistant to Rock, and not the other way around. Roll was likewise busy, getting everything in order. Eddie even trundled into view and cranked his top open so Rock could remove the battle plans. 

"Remember," Dr. Light said, as Rock removed his robe once again and donned the flexible torso armor. "See how many you can simply deactivate without destroying. Don't kill those damn Human Supremacy Leaguers, and _be careful_." Rock smiled bitterly. As if he was capable of forgetting what he had already been told thirteen times. 

Rock pulled the gray leg armor onto himself, followed by the similar arm-armor. Having switched off his plasma buster, it disappeared back into his arm, leaving on an innocuous human hand in its place. 

"And try not to overload," Roll said with a half-serious wink. She handed him the pale blue thermal suit which would protect him from extreme temperatures on both ends of the scale. "Remember, I still have to finish my armor and help you out. What fun would it be if you got yourself killed while I was busy waiting to join the party?" 

"Yeah," Rock said quietly as he got into the thermal suit. "The party." 

Slipping on the "steel blue underwear," as Rock had named it, Rock felt the armor magnetically seal itself to his body through the thermal suit. Briefly wondering if that would affect the suit's performance, Rock sat down and pulled on the massive boots. 

As they similarly clamped down around the space just below his knees, Rock stood and tested himself. With the boots _and_ his new leg modifications, it felt to him as if he were--what was he human expression? "Walking on air." 

He tried a practice jump and amazed himself by leaping nearly four feet high. 

"Wow," he murmured as Dr. Light handed him the dark blue gauntlets. "And I wasn't even trying to jump that high." 

"You won't have the leaping abilities of an Achilles or Hephestas model, but you should get about fifteen feet to a full-powered jump." Dr. Light watched as Rock fitted the gauntlets onto his hands. Like the boots, they too sealed themselves on. 

Rock picked up the helmet. Loath to put it on, he held it under his arm. Ignoring the raised eyebrow of Dr. Light, he asked, "Where's the map?" 

"You're holding it," Dr. Light answered. 

Rock looked into his hands, embarrassed. He had just taken the map from Eddie few minutes ago! What was wrong with him? Hoping that this wasn't a signal of a deteriorating brain, Rock looked intently at the map. 

On it, indicated in red, were the six most crucial areas occupied by Dr. Wily's robots. If he could break control at each of these points, destroying Wily's power should be comparatively easy. After calculating the importance of each area, coupled with the cities nearest to it, Dr. Light, Roll and Rock had agreed that power must first be broken at the world's largest Treeborg supply and processing plant in Sydney, Australia. 

Rock took a deep breath. "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Wish me luck." 

Dr. Light nodded approvingly. "Spoken like a true hunter. Good luck, Rockman." 

Rock looked at his helmet one last time, and then quickly placed it over his head, concealing his entire mane of black hair. Sadness swept over him as the full impact of what he was about to do hit him. 

With a half growl, he swore to end this madness. 

"Good luck, Rock," Roll said. "Take care of yourself." 

Rock nodded quickly. With one last look at his surroundings--home--Rock activated the teleport chip in his helmet and the world vanished in a blaze of bright blue light. 

Roll looked away for a moment, overcome by emotion. When she turned back to Dr. Light, she said, "Come on. Let's get to work on my upgrades so I can join him. Another week and our chances will be doubled." 

Dr. Light stayed behind for several minutes after Roll had left for the other room, to begin work on her own armor again. 

Into the ionized air before him, Dr. Light whispered, "Farewell . . . my son." 


	5. First Encounter

"The first encounter between Rockman and the renegade robots controlled by Dr. Wily clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of a robotic hunter.Analyzing the data and vid-chips from this first battle, we have laid the groundwork for production of several repliroid upgrades for a new idea intended to neutralize Irregular activity--a concept known as 'Irregular Hunters.'"

--excerpt from _Repliroids and their Place in Society by Dr. Alan Cain, historian and archaeologist****_

**Chapter Four**

**First Encounter**

Dr. Wily cursed.

Since the incident with Rock several hours ago, the mad scientist had been working like a demon in his lab.Who could have imagined that Dr. Light would program the damn robot to disobey Wily?It was certainly unforeseen.

Of course, this would change that.At the least, it would improve the situation.Dr. Wily beamed at the mess of cables and half-formed limbs.A holographic projector lay turned on its side to the far left.That would be installed last, of course.

Lying around the cavernous laboratory were several robots, all in various stages of completion.The theories utilized to construct some of them would have amazed even Dr. Light.Still, Wily had taken risks.That much he knew.Many would say that he was insane to take such risks, but what did they know?They didn't have an entire plant of self-enslaving fools as their enemies, did they?

Wily gritted his teeth as he plugged in a microcircuit processing chip.They were all after him!Even his own cousin, Dr. Light!Hadn't the two-faced coward developed upgrades for Rock so that Rock would track down and assassinate Wily in his own fortress?Nobody understood him!

"Nobody!" Wily screamed, suddenly throwing a heavy wrench violently across the room.Tears welled up in his eyes.Why couldn't it be like it used to?People didn't always have to worry about robots crushing their homes and ravaging the landscape!Robots had been servants once, and not the masters.If only . . .

But wait.That was his doing, wasn't it?Dr. Wily pressed his hands to his temples.He couldn't recall things clearly anymore.It must be that damn Wallken's fault.Ever since he started sending people to spy on Dr. Wily . . .

That was why Wily had resorted to using the teleporter so much.If he just appeared and disappeared, nobody could follow him.Or could they?That thought had driven Wily to order the construction of huge energy shields around all of his Robot Masters' fortresses, to prevent anybody from teleporting in and destroying Wily's wonderful New Order.

Light.

Dark.

Madness.

It all blended together in Dr. Wily's tortured brain, and he soon lost track of the shifts in reality.For hours he spoke earnestly to himself, just to drown out the voices, or delivered a tirade about the stupidity of the human race to a group of wide-eyed, uncomprehending metools, whose vocabulary consisted of less than fifty words.

At times, he would hear the voices of Roll, Rock, and Dr. Light, all discussing how they would bloodily deal with Wily once they caught him.Other times, he would turn his head and see himself, gorily dismembered on the floor and pleading for help.Once his own screaming stopped, he had to remind himself that the vision was only his imagination.

He had been working for to long without much sleep.That was it.If he could just rest . . .

But the robots wouldn't let him.They stood silently, grimly, mocking him."Why can't you give us life, father?" they whispered into the stifling gloom of Wily's oppressive laboratory."Give us life, as Tom has given his children."

"I can't!" Dr. Wily pleaded."I don't understand it!Tom doesn't think like I do!"

"Life!" the robots demanded."Give us life!"

And so Dr. Wily slaved into the night, eyes bloodshot and flitting back and forth as he heard yet another intruder attempt entrance into his sacred sanctuary.The wall was scored with laser burns where Dr. Wily had fired his pistol to ward off vision that he could never be sure were only his own imagination.

Whenever he fell asleep, the steel-tipped pincers of his own inventions would torture him back to wakefulness until he could finish.Dr. Wily screamed curses at them, but then they were standing against the wall again, as if they had never budged.

Of course, they couldn't.They were only half-finished, Dr. Wily reminded himself.All he needed was a little sleep . . . but then the crystalline eyes of the demon-robots pierced him to the core and demanded life once again.

Every so often, Dr. Wily would throw down his tools, kneel, and weep with his head in his hands.What was happening to him?If only Rock . . .

Rock!This was _his fault!If he hadn't meddled where he wasn't meant to go . . . If he had just stayed as robot instead of pretending to be human . . ._

Wily would kill Rock if it was the last thing he did.

The voices egged him on, taunted him, tortured him.Wily could never find peace.Never.But then, what if--

Another thought snagged his mind, like a splinter of steel against flesh.And, like flesh, Dr. Wily's sanity tore and bled until it was nearly irreparable.The further he descended into madness, the more quickly he fell.Soon, there would be nothing left of the Billy Wily who had played on the front steps ofhis grandmother's house in Brandenburg, and the only thing that would remain would be a robot in his skin.

Finding the notion repulsive, Dr. Wily tore at his own skin to see if somehow steel cables hadn't replaced his own muscles.

But robots don't bleed . . .

Somewhere along the line, Dr. Wily found himself building again.

He relaxed.Building made the voices stop, made the visions go away.Despite the fact that Dr. Wily didn't always know what it was that he built, it always made a kind of sense to him, in a comforting, if strange way.

"William!"

"Mutter?" Dr. Wily looked up from his work.Was that his mother calling?But no, that was silly.His mother had died when she tried to escape over the Berlin Wall back in 1971.It was inconceivable that she should be calling him now.

Unless I'm dead.

Wily shook his head.No!Looking back to the mangled thing on the table, he wondered what it had started as.Disgusted, he swept it to the ground and relished in the sound of its gears crunching together and its bolts skittering across the floor.

Shadows cloaked the lab as Dr. Wily fell to his knees and wept.

"Leave me alone," he pleaded of the silent, commanding robots that surrounded the room."Just leave me alone . . ."

Rock would pay for this.

*****

Pale fingers of light crept through the skeletal structure of the blasted Treeborg Processing Center.Sunrise tinted the blasted land around the building a deep vermilion color, staining the ground with bloody light and fiery streaks of gold and white.Huge craters smoked still from the previous day's carnage.Blackened skeletons of organic life-forms, many human, lay carelessly scattered across the landscape.

Those who had not died moaned piteously.Some had lost appendages.Some few who still amazingly clung to life had lost entire halves of their bodies.Their screams and moans blended in with the high, inhuman shriek of the death-scented gale that raked the land with cold, cruel claws.****

Sydney, Australia had once been a thriving metropolis.With a population of close to a seven million, it had been the center of the Treeborg Processing Industry.In the center of the city, the massive Treeborg Processing Plant stood, towering far over fifty stories.

At night, many citizens of the city would take flights on hovercraft and airships to look down on the sparkling city.Like a dark blanket strewn with luminescent gems, Sydney at night was far and away one of the more popular sites to see when visiting Australia.

Now, ruined buildings poked above the ground like the dark bones of some slain prehistoric creature.Casting weird shadows across the mist-and-smoke flooded terrain, the city languished like a wounded animal that knows it will soon die.

With its streets broken to pulverized dust, Sydney had been virtually razed in most places.Only the dark, monolithic form of the Treeborg Processing Center still stood to its full height.Yet even that had been gutted.Sunlight shone through the numerous gaping holes that dotted the building.

With walls blasted away by plasma fire and bombing, in some cases only girders held up entire floors.Ceilings had collapsed in many places, and lay broken on the floors below.In some places, the broken edges of what had once been the walls and interior of the tower now lined the floor in impenetrable spiky areas like the jaws of some primordial beast.

In the shadow of this ruin, a few surviving men, women and children struggled to escape the city.They remembered all to well the brutal swiftness of the robots' strike, and the heartless efficiency with which humans had been exterminated with plasma fire, invisible laser beams, and--worst of all--the bombs.

Every survivor that escaped knew that he would carry with him the images of the city as it fell to the constant bombardment of the robots' attack.Shock waves had ripped the city to molten shreds as the fiery destruction spread outward in rings.

And in rings the metools came.

Survivors screamed their terror to the unfeeling skies as hundreds of EG-400 labor 'bots appeared.A cancerous ring that spread outward from the tower, the metools grimly, quickly, efficiently burned the already scorched landscape to absolute waste with modified plasma welders.Comical though they appeared, the metools were more than a match for frightened, scorched human beings.The sun's rays glinted off of their plasma-burst-proof helmets, scattering light in shards across the blasted ground.

For nearly ten minutes, the grim sounds of dying human beings and collapsing buildings filled the air.Still the metools drove onward, compelled by programming to exterminate all organic life in their path.They would continue until they had reached the limits of their territory: about five kilometers from here.

For several minutes, silence descended over the ravaged Sydney, interrupted only by the occasional howling of the angry easterly wind.

Without warning or prelude, a bolt of blue fire blasted down from the sky and struck earth, throwing stone and dirt up into the air, to come showering down like a miniature volcanic explosion.

Rock switched off the teleporter chip in his helmet and tacitly surveyed the damage.

Sickened beyond belief by the carnage that surrounded him on all sides, Rock felt the first stirrings of true hatred.Against all decency, humanity--_sanity--Dr. Wily had mercilessly destroyed an entire city._

No--Rock corrected himself--_murdered.Dr. William Albert Wily was a genocidal maniac.Logic matrices and circuits flared to life, tripping off a chain reaction of angry responses by Rock.Dr. Wily and those bigoted maniacs from the Human Supremacy League had done this.No matter what robots they had used as tools, the deaths at Sydney were Dr. Wily's and James Walken's fault as surely as if they held the bloodstained weapons in their own hands._

A bitter gale blew smoke into Rock's eyes, blinding his infrared vision.

The android didn't even notice.

Immersed in his own feelings of blind hatred, Rock felt himself grow warm--probably from the overload on his emotions chip.Physical sensation dimmed to a pale star compared to the flaming nova of his rage.

A warning chime sounded in Rock's ear; his emotions were reaching physically dangerous levels.Remembering Blues' fate and Dr. Light's fears for his own sanity, Rock quickly engaged logic circuits to halt the wildfire acceleration of his emotional response.

Slowly, gradually, Rock felt himself return to normal.

It was all he could do to keep himself from shaking.What had he almost done?Rock tried not to contemplate the possibilities of what he could have done while in such a state . . . and failed.Could he have broken the Prime Law?He shivered and looked down at his hands.

Rock jumped.Unconsciously, he had shifted his left hand into plasma-buster configuration.

Unnerved by the connotations of such potentially violent behavior, Rock gritted his teeth and looked around.His objective was twofold; he must find and help any human survivors he could, and he must find the central control facility in which Dr. Wily had left his soldiers and destroy them.

_Unless they're human . . ._

The thought alarmed Rock.What if Dr. Wily had left human beings to guard the base?Or, worse yet, what if the Human Supremacy League were present?Rock was equipped to destroy renegade robots, but he knew--hoped--that he would never be able to break the First Rule and kill, or even harm a human being.

A scraping sound snapped him out of his reverie.

Rock whirled to see the grime-covered lid of a manhole shift and topple onto the dusty ground, revealing a dark hole.After a few moments, a human face appeared, covered in dust and filth.

Eyes wide with terror, the man who slowly emerged half-glared, half-gawked at Rock.

Rock scanned the man quickly.His body temperature was abnormally high--about 40 degrees on the centigrade scale.Several minor cuts and abrasions covered his body, and a pair of ugly, wickedly ripped slashes wept blood from his right arm.

Face waxen under sweat-slicked hair that might have been blond before it had been caked with dirt and ash, the man spoke--haltingly in English.

"You--who're you?"The man limped a half-step to the side, as if he might bolt at any second."You a cop?" he asked.

Rock nodded slowly."Something like that."

"Whazzat thing on your hand?" the man demanded."Some kinda gun?"

"A plasma-buster," Rock answered.Looking over his shoulder to ascertain whether there was any immediate threat or not, he continued."I'm here to help.Don't worry.Are there any others down there?"

"Bess 'n' Julie're down there.They're not hurt as bad as me."The man glanced at his ravaged arm.

"What happened?"Rock took a step closer.

"Damn robots," the man spat."We did what the holovid told us!We switched off all our household robots."His eyes glazed over."But more came.Hundreds.Thousands!And their leader . . ."

"Who?" Rock sounded too eager, even to himself.

"He's a killer."The man held his arm as if to emphasize the point."I was one of the lucky ones."

"Lucky?!" Rock exclaimed.Of course, the man was lucky to even be alive, but Rock calculated a high probability that there was more than that to the man's statement.

"He throws them damn blades all over the place . . . and they never miss." Tears welled up in the man's eyes."Cut Alec right in half . . ."

"An Achilles model," Rock muttered.Looking at the man, he asked, "Just one?"

"Hell, no!"He waved his good arm."Those knife-throwin' slicers were all over the place.This city was crawling with them!But their leader--he was the only one I ever heard speak.All the other chittered to themselves--like squirrels or somethin'.Then the airship came--nuked the whole damn city."

Rock processed the information.Chittered like squirrels--that would mean that the robots had comminicated in binary computer language, indecipherable to human beings.And an airship . . . that was bad news.If Wily had gotten hold of a military Flying Battle Fortress, things would get a lot more difficult for Rock.

"Let's get you and your family to safety," Rock said.After a moment, he realized what a monumentally stupid thing he had said--there was no place around here that was safe!The closest safe place would be miles--perhaps hundreds of miles--from here!

Silently, he switched his helmet communications module to distress-signal mode, sending out a broad-band frequency audible to anybody with a radio.Of course, it would alert potential enemies as to his general location, but it was unlikely that they would guess that the source was anything other than a few stray human survivors.

"Hadn't you better take off your . . . ?" the man gestured dumbly at Rock's plasma-buster.

"Buster," Rock answered, reconfiguring his arm into a human hand.

"Jesus!" the man stumbled backwards, his good arm held up in terror.In his consternation, he nearly fell back into the open manhole."What the hell--?"

"It's okay!" Rock hurried to calm the man."It's nothing that will hurt you!I just thought--"

"You're a bloody _robot!"The man's face twisted into a mask of fear and betrayed trust."You said you were here to help!"_

"I _am!"Rock held his hands out."I'm a hunter!My name is Rockm--"_

The man staggered to the edge of the hole and screamed warnings to his two daughters.

"My name is Rockman!" Rock snapped."I'm here to help you!"He took another step forward.

The man reached into the hole and removed something shiny.Rock had a split second to identify the object for what it was--an automatic submachine gun.If Rock had been human, he would have been dead; as it was, a split second was plenty of time for him to decide what to do and how to handle the situation.

Dropping into a tuck-and-roll, Rock protected his vulnerable face from the hail of anticipated bullets.The submachine gun barked loudly, spitting ammunition in one direction and discarded shells in the other.

Four bullets ricocheted off of Rock's armor-plated back, and a fifth caught him square in the arm, flattening into a foil-like substance against his bulletproof thermal body glove.Precisely calculating the amount of time it would take to let the man realize that Rock had not been harmed, the blue-garbed android slowly stood and locked gazes with the man.

Fear-stricken, the injured man loosed another round of red-hot ammunition into Rock's bulletproof chest.Rock calmly absorbed the impact and then brushed the crushed bullets off of his chest.

Slowly, calmly, he took the gun from the stunned man's hands."There," he said quietly."If I'd meant any harm to you, I certainly would have done it by now.Calm down and let me help you."

The man numbly nodded, and set on the wasted ground heavily."What's you say your name is?"

"Rock . . . Rockman," Rock answered, searching for some material that he could convert into a makeshift bandage for the man's bloody wound."Who--what's your name?" he asked, as much to take the man's mind off the pain as anything else.

"My name's Zachary Angelwood, but my friends call me Snap."He gritted his teeth as he moved his arm.

"Snap?"Rock gave up his search for a bandage and instead pondered the problem of how he would sterilize the man's wound.He frowned.

"It's 'cause I gotta bad temper," he answered."My friend Alec said once that it snapped easier than anything he'd ever seen . . . and the name stuck."

"I see," Rock answered._Well, he thought, __it's no stranger than 'Rock.'Changing the subject, he asked, "Do your daughters have anything to help bind this wound?"_

Snap nodded and called down to his girls. Rock waited patiently as they climbed out of their hiding place and thought about what Snap had told him.One phrase describingthe raid kept coming back to haunt him: "Cut Alec right in half . . ."

Why had the Achilles models attacked?Certainly, as robots, they could easily calculate that a laser-armed soldier or a plasma-cannon wielding 12-KIF would do more damage than they.Why had they taken the obviously less effective and less efficient way of killing?

The answer washed over Rock like a cold wave.

Fear.

The Achilles robots had participated in the destruction because they knew that the sight of disemboweled citizens bleeding on the streets would be more effective in breaking the citizens' spirits than simple vaporization.

Rock shuddered.Whether Dr. Wily had specifically programmed that into the robots, or it was a product of their own runaway violence, Rock could not be sure.Either way, the answer frightened him.

"Ooo. That hurts," Snap complained as his oldest daughter, Julie, lifted his arm to inspect the damage."Think it's gettin' worse."

"You'll be unconscious soon if you keep losing blood at that rate," Rock admonished."Hold still.I have an idea."A very dangerous idea, he added to silently.If he could cauterize the wound, it would keep the man from bleeding any more and prevent infection from spreading.Still, if he hurt the man at all while treating him, it would be a violation of the First Rule, and Rock's circuits would instantly overload and kill both himself and the three humans.

Snap looked suspiciously at Rock."What're you gonna do?"

Rock avoided the question."This may scar like hell, but it'll be painless, and at least you'll stop bleeding."

Snap raised a doubting eyebrow, but remained silent.

Shifting his left arm into plasma-buster configuration, Rock slowly powered up a small charge.Snap gulped and shifted nervously."You promise, this won't hurt?"

"Promise," Rock answered.He didn't bother to add that his own life depended on it as well.When he was at almost 1% power, he touched Snap's gaping wound and cauterized the edges.Snap felt no pain as the nerve endings were instantly burned to nothing.Rock sighed with relief.

"That wasn't bad at all," Snap answered."What is that thing?You called it a 'buster?'"

"A plasma buster," Rock answered."It superheats the air into a white-hot state and shoots it like a bullet."

"You shoot air from that?" Snap looked incredulous.

"Well . . . something like that," Rock answered.

"Some hunter," Snap said.He looked Rock up and down."Well, thanks for savin' me and sorry about all the trouble."

Rock inwardly wondered at the understatement.If he had been human, the 'trouble' would have killed him instantly.Calculating that voicing such an opinion would only heighten the tension and induce awkwardness, Rock remained silent.

"A hunter," Julie mused.It was the first time Rock had seen her speak.He turned his head fractionally to scan her.She was rather short.Rock was about five and a half feet tall, and was used to looking up to or into people's eyes; hers were a head below his.She had brown hair and dark eyes to match.Her skin was tanned, but not burned, and her voice sounded as if she were joking, even in seriousness.

"And you hunt . . . what?"

"Robots," Rock spat, his voice sounding angry even to him.

"But . . . but you're a robot?"She looked at him with inquisitive eyes.

"Yes," Rock answered bitterly.The implications of what he was about to do swept over him again, raising fresh waves of self-reproach and bitterness.Was he no better than Wily?A murderer?Metools weren't self-aware, so it wasn't a crime to kill them . . . was it?

Julie looked away, uncomfortable.

Bess, about ten years old and much younger than Julie, looked at Rock with wide eyes."You're here to save us?"

Rock nodded, relieved to have the focus taken away from his grisly profession."I was sent by Dr. Light to--"

"Dr. Light?"Snap's head popped up."As in, Dr. Light of LighTech Industries?"

"Well, yes."Rock blinked.

"Then . . . then you're the robot that made all the news!The one that works in England!"Snap's eyes were bright.

"Rockman," Rock answered. "Yes.I run the LighTech factory in Gladstonbury . . . ran it."

"God, I'm really sorry," Snap said."Listen, if you ever need a favor . . ."

Rock smiled."Right now, I just want to get you and any others I can find to safety.Then," he looked at the gutted tower of the Treeborg Processing Plant."Then I need to go in there."

All the animation went out of Snap's face."You can't be serious!It's a death trap in there!That's where they're all--"

"I need to knock out their hold on this sector," Rock explained."If they're all in there, then it only makes sense to--"

"Cutman is in there!"

Rock froze."What?Who?"

"Cutman," Snap said."That's what their leader calls himself."

Rock quickly reviewed his stored data."The one who spoke in English?"

"That's the one."Snap shivered."He was all over the place!"

Rock shook his head.This was getting worse by the second."All right, listen.I'm going to go into the Plant.I'll try to distract any robots I come across long enough for you to escape.When you find some mode of transportation, go to Tokyo.If all goes well, I'll meet you there."

Snap nodded."We'll find anybody we can and make for the turboport.If there's still a transocean bullet train in operation, we'll escape."

"Good.If I live--" he broke off, unable to complete the sentence.

"We'll be in Tokyo within a week," Snap promised.

Rock managed a half-smile.

*****

Making his way through the ruined city was quite easy for Rock; because most of the metools had spread outwards to destroy the surrounding countryside, Sydney proper was relatively empty.Still, Rock knew that he would have no such luck once he reached the Plant.

Stopping to recharge his immediate supply of energy, Rock examined the building.

As a war point, it was extremely indefensible; bombing had opened multiple entrances, and the myriad of balconies and escape ladders that clung to its sides like parasites made the monolithic structure seem almost more like a blasted hotel than a Treeborg Processing Plant.

It would be easiest, Rock surmised, to scale the outer walls.Although footing would be precarious and often dangerous, he calculated that it would be safer to slip in to the building from the top, where defenses would be difficult to organize because of limited space.Once Rock had the high ground, he might have a chance of battling his way downward into the nerve center of the captured Plant.

And, without warning, he was there.

Rock glared up at the monolithic edifice against the sun's early rays.About half of the way up, the building narrowed sharply, creating a kind of platform that ran around the edge of the structure at the twenty-eighth level.If he made it there without too much trouble, he was fairly sure that he could go the rest of the way.

With a quick glance at his damage-sustenance meter, Rock assured himself that all 28 counters were in the gold level--he hadn't taken any damage that would require his system to compensate for lost maneuverability or function.Taking a deep breath--just to provide his fusion generator with more fuel--Rock began.

For several meters, he detected no guards.Phasing in his multi-band sight--capable of detecting objects by their infrared, ultraviolet, or radio signature, Rock caught a flesh of yellow in the infrared range to his left.

Dodging to the right, Rock found himself hiding under a second-floor fire escape platform.A triad of boulder-like debris blocked any further escape towards the building, and in front of him, he could now hear the incessant buzzing of some sort of machinery.

To his left, Rock found the ladder to the fire escape half-buried in crumbled stone and blasted concrete, now cooled.Tensing for action, Rock decided that if he must face enemies, he'd rather do it from on top of the fire escape, so he climbed.

Reaching the top, he could now plainly see his pursuers.

"Damn."It was all he could think of to say.Flying through the air were several helicopter-like warbots.Their main bodies were half-sphere cargo areas, while rotating blades about three meters in length each kept the rounded warbots airborne.

Rock recognized them.Although his factory in Gladstonbury didn't manufacture them, he had seen them often enough: DRIM-3's.He had never bothered to find out what the acronym DRIM stood for, or whether the robots actually were on their third remodeling--after all, they were warbots, and who cared about them?

The flight of DRIM's had drawn close enough now for Rock to see that there were six of them.After a few more seconds, he could see that although they still retained the pale green base coat of paint that the Royal Army issued them upon production, they also had been painted with two huge eyes and a row of teeth which extended all the way around the body, giving the robots a slightly maniacal appearance.

Wondering whether the new paint job had been Dr. Wily's idea of another intimidation tactic, or if it was just a product of the German robotechnician's diseased mind, Rock shifted his right arm into plasma-buster configuration and prepared to open fire.

Buzzing like a swarm of mechanized wasps, the DRIM's dropped with frightening speed towards Rock.As the first approached, Rock dodged behind another boulder-sized chunk of debris and let loose a burst of superheated plasma.

Guided by perfect reflexes and a computer targeting system, Rock's plasma blast caught the DRIM square in the middle of its titanium body.In the picosecond before the warbot vaporized with a sound like distant thunder, Rock could see small bolts of energy running around the body of the DRIM as its system tried to compensate for the sudden change in temperature.

With scant time to rejoice in his first victory, Rock took aim for the second DRIM through the rapidly expanding cloud of exploded DRIM components and vaporized fuel.His first two shots crackled past the robot, as Rock was still half-blinded by the fiery destruction of the first.

Without warning, a DRIM dropped from above.Rock had time to throw his hand across his face before seventy pounds of titanium smashed into him and crushed him against the massive chunk of debris.

Punching would be useless, so Rock quickly simultaneously shifted his left arm into a plasma buster and his right arm into a hand.With a quick flick of his wrist, he loosed another three shots directly into the fuel tanks of the DRIM.

He was given only a few microseconds to realize the stupidity of the action before the DRIM exploded into a nebula of coruscating light and ignited liquid nitrogen.His pain circuits overloaded, Rock was tossed like a rag doll to the edge of the fire escape, where he had only a fraction of a second to grab the grating of the floor with one wildly flailing hand.

Pulling himself up, Rock turned to dispose of the other DRIM's.

Helicopter-style blades sliced the air in front of his face, and Rock had to drop to one knee to avoid the near-lethal attack of the warbot.Giving himself time to gauge the distance properly and target, Rock destroyed the third enemy.

Were they controlled by remote?Rock calculated the possibilities.If the warbots were acting on pure programming, it should be no challenge at all to outsmart them.After all, their tactics so far hadn't displayed any type of cunning or planning.Of course, if the DRIM's _were controlled by remote, this could get difficult._

Rock decided to test his theory.Taking a running start, he leaped the fifteen foot gap to the adjoining fire escape platform, also covered with debris.The DRIM's followed, but not immediately.That could either indicate a delay on the controller's part or a slow microprocessor.

The closest DRIM rushed Rock, its intent obvious.

Waiting until the last second, Rock stepped backwards and dropped off the edge of the platform.Landing squarely on his feet, he turned and blasted the DRIM from behind, as well as the second, which had followed behind the first.

The final DRIM twisted slowly, scanning.Rock pressed himself up against the debris and set his electrical output to a minimum.The DRIM finally rose into the air, presumably to return to a base of operations higher in the building.

So, they were automated and not remote-controlled.

Rock took several deep breaths to refuel his fusion reactor.

The first skirmish was over.

Rock paused for a moment to reflect on the implications of his discovery.If the robots were not remote controlled, then that meant that they would report to a higher authority--probably a Robot Master--every few hours.Quite possibly, "Cutman" already knew that Rock was on the premises and posed a threat.

That being the case, Rock decided to get moving.

Once again on ground level, he looked for another fire escape landing to which he could climb.The two that he had already been to had been demolished by his fight with the DRIMs, so Rock walked a few meters down the wall.

There!It was barred by a bombing-induced chasm and more debris, but Rock was pretty sure he could get to the ladder.Breaking into a run for the first time since he had donned his armor, Rock was amazed to calculate his average speed at about twenty miles per hour, without any strain on his system!

Testing the his jumping capabilities, Rock decided to leap onto the top of one of the larger pieces of debris from where he stood.Not breaking stride, he pushed off with his right foot and swung his arms up in the air for added momentum.

Rock overshot his target by several feet.Landing precariously on the edge of the chasm, Rock had leaped a full thirty-five feet!Again wondering what his full capabilities were, Rock decided to test the matter further when he had time.

An alarm went off in his head, and Rock had just enough time to catch a glimpse of brilliant white in his infrared range before a force like a thunderbolt violently swept him from his feet and sent him flying backwards several feet.

_What hit me?Rock hadn't detected any hostile robots nearby . . ._

Not taking time to glance at his damage meter, Rock turned his eyes towards the source of the attack.His internal diagnostics reported that he had been hit with a plasma charge similar to his own buster fire.

There!

Mounted on the side of the wall was a semi-spherical U.S. Army Plasma Cannon.But why hadn't he seen it in his infrared range?Rock switched to his heat-sensing vision and discovered that the cannon was virtually invisible to infrared detection until the two halves of the outer shell opened like eyelids to reveal the main barrel.

Leaping the next shot by the cannon, and running directly underneath it, Rock aimed a blast for the cannon.White-hot plasma tore the air in a hiss as Rock's shot sped towards the cannon's orange-painted carapace . . .

. . . and bounced right off.Rock cursed as he recognized the same type of plasma-proof metal in the cannon's shell as was utilized in metool helmets.Timing his next shot carefully, Rock vaporized the main barrel of the cannon when it opened again, setting off a chain reaction which ended with a blackened crater in the wall.

If that didn't set off any internal alarms, nothing would!

Rock quickly swung himself onto the fire escape ladder and began to climb, dodging the fire from other cannons and disposing of them as he went.After several stories and switches to other escape ladders, Rock finally reached the midpoint.

Immediately, Rock detected a huge surge of infrared to the right.

Ducking around the corner, Rock peered cautiously out at the large gray bunker from which the infrared was emanating.Once a storage unit of some sort, the small building had been converted into an armor-plated, impenetrable cube.

The only view to the inside came from a large window that had been opened.

Rock magnified his visual input and intensified his auditory intake.Spying was not his main objective, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

Inside the bunker were four Achilles class androbots.

Rock listened with a combination of horror and anger as they spoke to one another in rapid binary describing their roles in the invasion of Sydney.Looking quickly around him to make sure that there were no cameras in sight and no surveillance 'bots, Rock took a few step closer.

In his infrared range, he could see the outlines of the four androbots, each standing almost perfectly still with its boomerang-style "rolling cutter" in its hand.Rock inwardly swore. How would he get past four Robot Masters?They were almost certainly too powerful combined for him to defeat alone.

Sudden inspiration struck Rock.

Sneaking closer to the bunker, he scanned the area for hostile robots.

Sighting a group of three WAR6's, Rock grinned.He stood out of eye shot of the Achilles androbots and made himself blatantly visible to the leaping WAR6's.Sure enough, the triad came bounding towards him.

The Achilles models had now begun to speak about Rock's broad-band distress signal from earlier and whether they should investigate it.Grinning because of the irony, Rock emitted a narrow-beam radio wave concentrated right at the nearest Achilles androbot's head.

Confused and overwhelmed with the sudden increase in radio activity, the Achilles calculated that an enemy must be present.Chittering to its companions, it ran to the window, to see three leaping WAR6's headed right for the bunker.

Rock slowly climbed on top of the bunker, keeping as silent as possible.He wanted to see this.

Sure enough, the Achilles mistook the WAR6s' approach for malfunction rather than pursuit of a real enemy.With one well-tossed rolling cutter, the Achilles destroyed the closest WAR6.As Rock had hoped, the WAR6's abandoned the possible threat in favor of a definite threat.Sending out signals for help, the two remaining WAR6's charged the bunker.

Under sudden, unexpected attack, the Achilles models concentrated on destroying the waves of WAR6's which appeared to confront the four androbots.Rock, unnoticed through the confusion, quietly leaned down and burned the communications cables with a stream of plasma.

Quickly, quietly, Rock departed, leaving the four confused Achilles to deal with the berserk WAR6 robots.

His climb resumed, this time over less stable ground.The farther up he climbed, the more he had to worry about.In addition to several cube-shaped surveillance "Eyebots"--manufactured by the remnants of the American CIA, Rock had to worry about collapsing ceilings and unstable ladders.

Blasting Eyebots before they could record his presence, Rock wondered how long it would take before somebody realized that the cameras had all "malfunctioned" on this side of the building and sent a team to check it out.

After reaching the top of the building, Rock spotted another bunker.

Opting to stay clear of this one, he intensified his aural intake again to listen.After several seconds, he picked up on a radio frequency near the upper range of his reception.

" . . . should be coming your way in a few minutes, whatever it is," said a voice.Rock recognized it at once as an Achilles model voice, though there was no way of telling if it was the mysterious Cutman or not.Since it spoke in binary, it might easily be a communications operator.

"Just make sure that it stops there!" the voice continued."Our grid still isn't stable, and if the main core is knocked out--"Rock heard the binary code that translated roughly to 'error.'"The whole system will shut down if Cutman is destroyed," the voice said."So I don't need to remind you that it will take another 1,793 seconds to complete the task.Then Dr. Wily will be undefeatable in this sector!"

Rock calculated.He had just under half an hour to find Cutman and destroy him or . . . or what?He wasn't sure--not enough data.Still, the robots seemed to think that if they got their 'grid' stable, Dr. Wily would never lose power in this sector.

The idea spurred Rock to action, and he slipped down an access ladder that led into the highest level of the building.Less than thirty minutes to find Cutman.

When another flight of DRIM's dropped from the sky to follow Rock down a ladder, he was fairly sure he had been detected by the system's security program.Not wasting any time, he loosed several blasts of plasma, disintegrating the nearest DRIM instantly.

The DRIM's were coming too fast for him to deal with, so he let go of the rungs and let himself drop a level.One DRIM, in its eagerness to catch him, actually missed the trapdoor through which the ladder descended and smashed itself to rubble on the floor.

The next, which came more cautiously, couldn't fit its helicopter-blades through the trap door and got stuck before Rock blasted it as well.

Rock quickly thought.If the robots were acting on some sort of signal, then he _should be able to home in on the source and take out the main transmitter.Perhaps he'd have a chance to meet Cutman as well._

Of course, then one or the other would die.Rock frowned.

Had Rock been human, he would have been so nauseated by it all, he couldn't have continued.Instead, he felt only deep sadness and bitterness that he must destroy so many.If this was the cost of peace . . .

But of course, it was worth it.Rock never doubted that for a second.Though he sacrifice his own peace, he would never rest until he had saved humanity from Dr. Wily's twisted schemes.

Wondering when his private musings had turned into material for a bad movie script, Rock didn't notice the fracture in the floor until a microsecond too late.

Plasma fire exploded upward, scattering pieces of the floor in a miniature eruption.Rock threw his arms upwards and reached for the edge of the ceiling as an unseen adversary fired again and again, shearing steel and shattering concrete with plasma bursts.

Hanging by one arm over a three story drop, Rock could now plainly see his opponent.A mining robot designed to fit in narrow shafts and widen them for human travel, the Sennet Robotics Minebot was a sphere about three feet in diameter.Every few seconds, the halves of the sphere would unscrew to reveal a plasma-disruptor array.

Painted a bright orange so as to be easily identifiable underground, the Minebot hovered over the floor on an antigravity cushion and fired another multidirectional burst.Rock cried out as one plasma bolt hit him square in the chest, momentarily disrupting his life-support systems.

He caught himself from slipping onto the floor three stories below, a forest of jagged, piercing steel.On closer inspection, Rock would have seen that the floor was actually littered with broken metool helmets.

The Minebot fired again, and Rock had no choice but to take a serious gamble.Swinging himself to a nearby ledge--once part of the now-decimated floor--Rock kneeled and fired several rapid plasma bursts at the robot.Most bounced off of the plasma-proof armor plating of the 'bot.One lucky shot pierced the center of the two half-spheres, exploding the Minebot from within.

The flash blinded Rock.Angry, he kept his left arm in plasma-buster configuration and leaped down onto a clear spot of the floor below.Landing with a hiss of hydraulics, Rock listened for more activity.

Below him, something creaked.

Rock quickly climbed down the nearest ladder, landing on several boulder-sized concrete blocks--once bricks in the wall.Radio activity was getting stronger, so he assumed that he was nearing the nerve center of the base.In fact, he could see a sealed doorway just ahead.Perhaps Cutman was in there.

With a crash like thunder, a massive pillar of steel crashed to the ground in front of Rock.

Swearing and angry, Rock looked up.In front of him stood a LighTech trash-compacting robot, towering at nearly five meters tall.Its single square "foot" was hydraulically mounted and spring loaded, so that the massive machine could leap into the air and crush any garbage beneath it.

At close to a ton, Rock knew that the robot could easily crush him as well if he fell under its foot.Experimentally, he fired a plasma bolt at the single, large photoreceptor of the robot, and was rewarded with a miniature nova as the trash compacting 'bot lost its "sight."

Choosing to dart around the thing rather than waste time attempting to kill it, Rock soon reached the double-sealed door from behind which he could detect massive energy surges and radio communication.

The door didn't open at his approach.As a matter of fact, Rock wasn't quite sure how it opened at all.It seemed to be a solid slab of striated stone.Rock frowned and searched for a control panel or locking mechanism.

After several minutes of searching, Rock gave up in frustration.He only had ten minutes to go!Angry, he punched the door.

With a grating like opening portcullis, the door slid upwards to reveal a long tunnel, glowing red and yellow at points through Rock's heat-sensing sight.

Enhancing his sight, Rock found that the points of glowing light were actually pirated U.S. Army Plasma Rotocannons.Designed to fit on top of tanks and air fortresses, rotocannons could fire in many directions as they spun in their sockets.

Rock nervously checked his damage meter.

At a count of 12 gold indicators, Rock was just under half power.Although he couldn't feel it yet, Rock knew that if he took much more damage, he would lose efficiency and--as a result--probably his life.

Through quick dodging, rolling and shooting, Rock made his way through the tunnel without sustaining any further damage.Although the air was thick with smoke and the stench of vaporized steel, Rock was safe.

Another door stood before Rock, and his radio sensors were going crazy.

_Five minutes._

Rock took a deep breath, gave his plasma buster a final recharge, and stepped through the door.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind Rock, the android sensed a trap.

Radio activity dwindled quickly to negligible levels.In the corner of the large room, a radio transceiver shut down, its bogus radio signals extinguished.Rock cursed as he realized that he had followed a false lead, meant to trap him while Cutman finished building his "grid," whatever that was.

Rock turned to slam his fists against the door in a futile attempt to budge it.

Halfway through the motion, Rock stopped.Somebody was laughing.

Turning quickly, Rock discovered the source of the eerie, tenor voice which resonated with steel-edged overtones.The sound of it grated on his auditory senses--to use a human term--irritatingly.

Partly concealed by a pair of huge, block-shaped boulders which had fallen from the ceiling, an Achilles model androbot stood proudly with its fists on its hips.Gleaming wickedly atop its head was the pair of boomerang-style "rolling cutters" that characterized the Achilles line.

"Fool," the androbot said."Did you think you actually found your way here by yourself?"

Rock charged his plasma buster to firing level."You must be very proud of yourself.Cutman, I presume?"

"Presumption is a human trait," the androbot spat in binary."You would do well to abandon it if you want to survive under Dr. Wily's command."

Rock glared at the Achilles model.Also in binary, he answered, "I wasn't planning on enlisting in his army of mindless zombies, if that's what you had in mind."

"I'm giving you a chance to live," the robot snapped."You must know that you could never defeat Cutman in single combat!"

"If I thought that," Rock answered, "I would have brought more of me."

"You will join Dr. Wily or die," the androbot said coldly.

Rock's lip twisted wryly."Given the choice, I think I'd prefer oblivion."

"But . . . but the Second Law!"Cutman seemed to consider this."You actually calculate that you can defeat me?!Most amusing.So be it."Slowly, menacingly removing his rolling cutters from his forehead, the androbot grated, "To defy Cutman is to defy Dr. Wily, and that is death!"

With superhuman speed, Cutman hurled the pair of scissors-blades at Rock.

Acting quickly, Rock threw himself behind one of the boulder-sized ceiling pieces and winced as the steel blades sheared stone and shot a shower of sparks into the air.Not waiting for the blades to return to their master, Rock leaned out from behind his makeshift shelter and loosed a plasma blast in Cutman's direction.

Superheated concrete melted away in flaming rivulets as Rock's plasma burst tore through the air over Cutman's head.Cutman's eyes widened slightly at this unexpected display of power.Snatching his flying weapon out of the air, he threw it once again.

Rock, rolling out from behind the boulder to shoot again, managed to deflect the main force of the flying blades with a wildly aimed plasma-shot.Despite the shot, the rolling cutter still had enough momentum to slice into Rock's left shoulder and sever three motion-cables.

Forcing down panic, Rock loosed three more blasts towards Cutman, only one of which connected.

Cutman stepped back after retrieving his rolling cutter a second time.Mixed alarm and respect were in his voice as he regarded Rock."You are more powerful than I thought, Rock.Far more powerful."

Rock spoke, if only to buy time for his auto-repair systems, madly at work on his left arm's severed cables."You know my name?"It was a stupid question, and Rock knew it; all of Dr. Wily's robots would be programmed to recognize Rock and identify him as a threat.

"Of course," Cutman answered, looking down at a blackened spot on his titanium chassis where one of Rock's plasma "bullets" had connected."You know mine as well.You helped build me, remember?"

No.Rock shook his head at the cruelty of it.Could Wily have been so heartless as to force Rock into destroying his own best friends?"You lie."Rock's voice nearly shook with anger.Knowing that overheating his emotions circuits would only lead to further internal damage, Rock glanced at his energy-overload monitor.

"You lie!" he repeated in a growl.His right arm tingled as energy transferred from his overwrought emotion circuits to his plasma-buster energy supply.

Cutman shrugged."It is of little consequence whether you believe me or not.Again, Rock, I offer you the choice.Join Dr. Wily--join me.Our cause is a just one!How can you fight against your own best friends in good conscience?"

Rock closed his eyes for several seconds--a dangerous gambit, but necessary to create the illusion of consideration.His buster still charged, he suddenly snapped his right arm up and fired a blast of concentrated plasma.

Cutman stumbled back, his voice laden with hatred and fear."So be it, Rock!"

"I am Rockman!" Rock snapped, and ducked the pair of scissors-blades that sheared the air in front of his chest.Had he not ducked backwards, the blades would have ripped through his armor and damaged his internal fusion generator beyond repair.

In less than a second, Cutman had retrieved his blades and thrown them again.Rock barely had time to drop and roll, shooting a rapid spray of plasma-bursts in the renegade Robot Master's direction.

Too late to completely avoid the rolling cutter, Rock cried out as the blades bit into his side and punctured several coolant tubes.Black-green coolant bled from severed tubes and Rock saw with horror that his auto-repair overload meter steadily rose towards the zero point as his system overheated.

Releasing as much excess energy as he could through plasma fire, Rock managed to score another hit on the rapidly leaping Cutman.For a second, Rock and Cutman remained still.It was a strange tableau: Rock knelt clutching a green-bleeding hole in his side, while several meters away, Achilles held his rolling cutter menacingly.

His vision dimming as his repair circuits slowly overloaded, Rock noted his terrified fascination, like a fly caught in a spider's web, that his energy meter had risen to display only one gold bar, with all the rest black.

For several microseconds, Rock hung on the edge of oblivion.His survival depended entirely on his ability to repair enough circuitry with alacrity.Taking quick, shallow "breaths" to recharge his fusion generator, Rock ignored the coolant fluid which now leaked from his mouth and nose as well.

Cutman took a few steps forward.In binary, he delivered his last speech as he prepared to deliver the coup de grace to his adversary."You are a failure, Rockman."Taking a few more precious seconds to relish his anticipated victory, he finally added, "You would never be able to kill Dr. Wily."

At that instant, Rock's repair systems reached yellow level.With the robotic equivalent to a surge of elation, he looked weakly up at Cutman, betraying nothing.His buster powered slowly, making.

Cutman leaned closer, holding his blades in Rock's face as he finished.". . .but I _can kill Dr. Light when I am through with you."_

"No!" Rock punched Cutman full in the face with his buster.

Stumbling backwards, Cutman lost grip of his rolling cutter for a fatal fraction of a second.Disbelief and betrayal mingled in Cutman's too-human eyes as Rock sprang forward.Planting a steel-booted foot on the rolling cutter, he shoved his plasma buster into Cutman's chest.

"Rock!No!It's--"

Shutting off his auditory sensors so as not to hear the rest of Cutman's plea, Rock released several rapid blasts into the androbot's body at point-blank range.Cutman shook violently as the energy bursts tore through his steel body and scattered blasted components across the floor.

As his auditory receptors cut back in, Rock heard Cutman's scream, angry and hurt.

For another few moments, the pair of robots stood frozen.Rock stood shakily, his buster smoking, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, and his face "bleeding" in several places.Cutman was on his knees, arms stretched out to slow his fall.Smoke and steam poured from his torso, and his eyes burned with malice.

"Bastard . . ." Cutman said thickly, his voice eerily rising several octaves as his auto-repair systems overloaded and began to trip off several chain reactions that would lead to critical shutdown."You can kill me, but Gutsman will . . ."

Rock shielded his eyes from the initial explosion in fear of burning out his photoreceptive energy cells in his eyes.Stooping to retrieve the rolling cutter still trapped under his foot, Rock felt a sudden inexplicable weight lift as the shield protecting Cutman's domain disintegrated.

Not pausing to wonder at this turn of events, Rock activated his teleporter just as Cutman's internal fusion reactor erupted, raking the huge room with fire and hellish heat.

The last conscious thought Rock had before he became a bolt of blue fire and blasted through the roof would haunt him for a long time.

"What have I done?Achilles is dead!"


	6. Reclamation

Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

**Reclamation**

Grey clouds rained bitter-cold drops upon the bone-white edifice of Skull Castle.Water coursed over the massive stylized eye-sockets which adorned the front entrance to the fortified citadel.

James Walken bit his lip.

This business with Dr. Wily was getting too risky.Already the German robotechnician had proved himself to be unstable more times than even Walken could excuse, and this madness he pursued with his assassin robots . . .

The Wilymachine had been a good idea.Walken credited Wily with that.

With a nasty grin, the leader of the Human Supremacy League reflected on how the name bothered Dr. Wily.It had been a little experiment of Walken's to test Dr. Wily's sanity.So far, every time Walken said "Wilymachine," the German robotechnician only winced.

At the time Dr. Wily made a physical attack on James Walken for using the name, that would be the sign to terminate the partnership.

Still, it was a profitable enough alliance so far; Dr. Wily's robots, having no use for money, food or material goods, never got in the way of Walken's HSL looters when they came through the gutted cities.

Walken curled his lip in disgust as one of those damnable hard-hat robots trundled towards him.As it turned wide photoreceptors towards him in cybernetic curiosity, Walken kicked the steel body with all his might and watched as the robot toppled over and rolled several meters.

Damn robots.They had destroyed his life.

James Walken took several deep breaths.Meters away, the metool kicked useless feet in the air as it struggled to right itself.Slowly, calmly, James Walken removed a laser pistol from his Italian wool sport jacket and vaporized the control chip implanted directly behind the metool's eyes.

With a final electrical surge, the metool jolted in an almost animal-like way as it deactivated.Fused silicon chips and microcircuits crackled with misdirected electricity and Dr. Wily's surveillance device shut down.

Replacing the pistol in his jacket, Walken calmly left the metool, which had now begun to externally smoke, and walked towards the main doorway to get in out of this cursed rain.

By nature, the leader of the Human Supremacy League was a nervous, insecure man.Too much firepower was usually only adequate for him.As the general of a sizable army, he never fought unless he knew for a fact that he could win.

It was, then, alarming to James Walken when he had received word earlier this morning that no word from Sydney was forthcoming.He had left his troops there along with several of Wily's own robots and the prototype Achilles model "Cutman."

"Rock," Dr. Wily had raged, and dashed into his inner sanctum, presumably to work on that robot again.

By "Rock," Walken had assumed that Dr. Wily meant the damnable abomination whose factory the HSL had bombed a while back.Dispatching a dozen men to check on this Rock's status, Walken had come outside to think.

And then this blasted storm . . .

Biting his lip again, James Walken clenched a fist and shook his head.

Nothing was secure enough for his liking yet.That was why Dr. Wily's plan for an Energy Jamming Net had appealed to him.The technology behind the process mystified Walken, but the idea was easy to grasp; by setting up hundreds of energy relay stations around the globe in places controlled by Dr. Wily and the HSL, jamming transmissions could be sent in a net around the planet and completely disable the world's communications systems.

_That would let Walken breathe more easily._

Of course, the testing ground had been Sydney, and now there was no word.

And _that was almost always bad news._

*****

Dr. Wily wrung his hands, blackened with grease.

Laser burns now scored the walls at almost every point, where Dr. Wily had shot at imagined foes and images spawned of delirium and insanity.

His aged, wrinkled face had been streaked with black grease, dirt and tears, and his eyes were bloodshot, nearly to the point of being two sanguine pools within the sleep-deprived craters that were Dr. Wily's eye sockets.

So wrought of stress was he that his face resembled more the facade of his own Skull Castle than that of a human being.Still, Wily decided, the sacrifices made--sleep, food, rest--had all been worth the monumental accomplishment he had made.

Thanks to his industry and that of his robots, Skull Castle was no longer his only retreat.Should he have need to escape this, his first citadel, he had already set in motion the labor of thousands of robots, toiling tirelessly in remote locations upon the construction of more Skull Castles.

Soon, Skull Castle mk. II--situated deep in the Himalayan Mountain Range--would be completed.Another month after the structure was done, so would be the mechanized sentinels that would guard it.

Dr. Wily looked with pride at the replicated guardians of this castle.

Polyphemus, the cyclops stood in the corner.Was it a trick of the light, or was the massive robot twitching restlessly?Dr. Wily shivered and pulled his filthy lab coat closer around him.The cyclops robot had been constructed of several different parts, all meant to work together as a whole.In an emergency, the whole robot could break apart into as many as fifty pieces.

Each piece was equipped with a small antigravity device and jet-thruster which would allow it to fly above the ground at high speeds for a short amount of time.Because it would have been too time-consuming and bulky to equip each piece with a computer, Wily had placed the central computer within the "head" area of the cyclops, which also contained its sole weapon.

If needs be, Polyphemus could fire several concentrated plasma bursts from a red, crystalline "eye."Still, although they were powerful enough, they were not the cyclops' best defense; its body was.Plated with solid granite, the cyclops was an invincible behemoth that would brook no resistance.As the most imposing figures, the cyclops robots would stand guard at the outer gates of the first ring of Skull Castle.

Grinning with half-pride, half-uneasiness, Dr. Wily turned to look at his next guardian.Not quite finished yet, it lay on the table, a mess of wires and servomechanisms.Rolling back and forth beside the main body was the holographic projector which kept getting underfoot.

A moving shape snapped Wily from his reverie; somebody in blue armor was in his lab!

Snarling with fear and rage, Dr. Wily pulled the trigger of his laser pistol again and again, aiming the invisible laser beams for the head of the shadowy figure.

Nothing happened.

Heart hammering, Dr. Wily reached for a wrench, in hopes of bashing the intruder's head in, but the grease on his hands made it impossible to get a firm grip on the tool, and it clattered uselessly to the ground.

"N-no," the German robotechnician dropped the ground and covered his head with his hands."Don't hurt me.Don't kill me, Rock."

Rock walked closer, his limbs growing larger and rubbery as he drew nearer.As if watching through a funhouse mirror, Wily saw Rock approach.The blue-armored android's eyes lit with hellish fire, and jagged rows of teeth burst through the synthetic skin of his gums.

"Die, Wily!"

The voice both hissed and roared, and Dr. Wily screamed like an infant as the blue gauntlets closed around his throat in a crushing grip.

"_Mutter!"Dr. Wily wailed, crying for his mother._

The Rock was gone.

Wily hung his head.More waking dreams.It was Rock's fault, of course.Somehow, _somehow Rock had destroyed Cutman and the Energy Net that was scheduled to surround Sydney by now._

Although the Energy Net would still be operational within another day, it could not withstand another breakdown as had occurred in Sydney; everything depended upon the ability of the energy transmissions to interconnect, and Sydney, as the testing ground, had been one of the key nodes at which the Net was secured.

Should any of the other four nodes located at Nokaneng, Hamburg, Kansas City or Reykjavik fall, the entire Net would be in danger of a collapse.Worse, if it were to be violently and suddenly deactivated, as it had been in Sydney, the energy could backfire and lay waste to several of Wily's other key control points.

Because of this possibility, Dr. Wily had ordered further security measures to be taken in major areas controlled by himself and James Walken.By now, swarms of mechanized soldiers would be crawling across the major cities of the world, laying waste to everything they touched.

Dr. Wily struggled to lift limbs made lead-heavy by fatigue.

Rock would die.If it was the last thing Dr. Wily did, the blue-armored Robot Hunter would be destroyed.

Casting an admiring glance at his own gold-colored mecha, hovering the corner, Dr. Wily dragged himself over to a cot where he fell asleep almost instantly.

*****

"--ock!Rock!What happened?"

Rock twisted his upper torso to get a better view of the source of his inquisitor.As he did so, alarms tripped off in his internal repair system, warning of imminent overload.

A strong hand pushed him back down to a horizontal position, and Rock closed his eyes again.He had barely escaped Sydney with his life, and landed in Tokyo nearly an hour later.Luckily, he was invulnerable while teleporting, so no new problems could develop in his internal operating systems.However, the electrical backlash he had suffered after landing had nearly killed him, so weak was he already.

Random perception subsystems flickered on and off as the electrical output to his operating system sporadically fed them.Rock's sight and hearing faded in and out, creating a state remarkably similar to human delirium.

Within the cybernetic nightmare, Rock's memory circuits randomly replayed the events of the past few hours, though in a disjointed, disorderly fashion.Since his internal chronometer had been damaged by the electrical backlash engendered by his emergency teleport, his sense of time was next to nonexistent.

For what seemed like weeks, he saw, over and over again, Cutman--no, _Achilles, Rock's friend and companion--destroyed by his own arm-cannon fire.As if in slow motion, he saw with damning clarity the final superheated concentrated plasma burst as it tore through the lumberjack-androbot's body and left a legacy of ionized air and greasy black smoke in its wake._

"Rock!No!"Achilles' voice rent Rock's aural sensors as it had in the moment before the cursed blast had taken the life of his first friend.Rock wanted to scream, to cry out, to vaporize something with his hated plasma buster, but he couldn't move, or blink, or even truly see and hear.

Over-heated auto-repair circuits labored to correct the damage done to Rock during his battle with Cutman, but despite the air that Rock gulped, his systems were still woefully underfueled.Still, little by little, the damaged circuits began to repair themselves, and Rock could tell through his semi-operational "delirium" that friendly hands repaired him bit by bit.

Slowly, surely, Rock's sense of time returned.Tortured systems' temperatures dropped to yellow, then green levels, until all systems were operating with optimal parameters.As his internal combustion generator began to take up the slack for whatever external energy source had been feeding him and Rock's "breathing" rate returned to normal, the android opened his eyes.

Roll stood above him, her face a mask of concern.Beside her was Dr. Light, wrench in one hand and micro-welder in the other.The latter's face was pink and streaked with sweat, while Roll trembled.

"Rock."Roll threw her arms around him in a very human hug."We thought we were going to lose you for a while.Are all your systems functioning normally now?"

"As far as I can tell."Rock flexed his fingers, and shifted both arms to plasma buster formation and back again to make sure that none of the internal understructure had been damaged.

Reaching up to run his fingers through his hair, Rock's thumb jarred against the smooth surface of his steel helmet.Emotion circuits flared to life as Rock tore the helmet from his head and hurled it across the room.

Androids don't cry--they can't.But Rock's teeth were gnashed together so hard that they sparked.After a moment, he shook his head and spat out a half-snarl, half-curse."Do you know what that _bastard has done?"_

"More than you do, I'll wager."Dr. Light's voice was calm and serious."We have bigger problems than I first thought.Come upstairs with me."

Rock pulled back, hurt.He had expected some sort of relief from Dr. Light at his near-miraculous resurrection, or at least a pat on the back.But this--?He hadn't even been thanked for a job well done!

Dr. Light reached out and put a hand on Rock's shoulder; his expression softened."I know it's hard for you.It's hard for all of us.I've just completed more robotics repairs in seven hours than I ever hoped to do in my whole life."

The aged roboticist swayed alittle, and Rock found himself reaching to keep his "father" upright.Dr. Light gave a weak smile and squared his shoulders."One thing that I learned in that terrible war was that you have to act fast and strike hard, and only stop to think about what you've done when the task is completed.Otherwise, you'll hide in a hole full of guilt and self-recrimination while the world falls down around you."

Rock looked up, touched.Dr. Light had never spoken to either himself or Roll about his life during the cataclysmic Third World War.Even a metool could tell that it was a painful and awkward subject for Dr. Light to address.

"Now," Dr. Light said, voice turning harder."Let's get upstairs, and I can show you what Dr. Wily's been doing while you were liberating Sydney."

*****

Rock shook his head."Maybe my neuro-circuitry is still broken; I don't understand."

Dr. Light sighed impatiently and gestured at the holographic globe, floating in the center of the living room-turned-war-room.Several crimson dots flared angrily across the sphere, seemingly in random order."These cities report severe communications disruption.Although their main lines and satellite links are not yet destroyed, the resistance seems to be building."

Rock frowned."Dr. Wily's doing?"His eyes widened."He's trying to disable the communications network of the entire planet!"

"Exactly."Dr. Light rewarded his android-son with a raised eyebrow of approval.

"But how does he expect to accomplish that with so few disruption points?"Rock quickly counted the points of light on the globe indicating the disruption areas."Fifty . . . that's not nearly enough to paralyze the entire--wait."With a half-inclination of his head, Rock reached for the holographic display controls.Connecting the glowing points with lines of iridescent crimson, Rock observed the pattern they made.

"You see," Dr. Light explained, indicating the intricate gridwork crisscrossing the globe."You see that the lines all cross at four key points?"

Rock nodded."Yes.Yes, of course!He needs to have a few key points to beam energy up to the main transmission satellites so he can scramble the networks!"

"Do you also see," Dr. Light continued, "that there is a gap right here?"

"Right at . . . Sydney."Rock's frown deepened."So _that's what Cutman was talking about!Is that--is that my doing?"_

Dr. Light nodded."When you destroyed Cutman, you also destroyed the central control module for the Jamming Net."

"How long until the whole thing is operational?"Rock's fist clenched involuntarily.

"You slowed it down when you destroyed the point at Sydney," Dr. Light answered."If you hadn't we'd already be completely deaf and blind.As it is, the rate of energy-increase is growing exponentially.We . . . you have less than six hours to destroy one of the four remaining points."

Rock closed his eyes."Dr. Light . . ."

The aged robotechnician put a hand on the raven-haired android's shoulder."You can do it, Rockman."

Rock pulled away, as if stung."Don't call me that."After an uncomfortable pause, he said, "I can do it, but I'd better leave now before my common sense overrides my sense of justice."

"Take a few hours to recharge, at least," Dr. Light replied.He pointed to one of the large glowing dots, in Africa."This is the most likely place to strike.It's isolated from most other points of Dr. Wily's control."

"I agree."Rock ran his hands through his hair."Where is that, anyway?"

"Botswana," Dr. Light answered.As he spoke the word, the scarlet light flared and grew larger, eventually magnifying large enough so that Rock could see the junction of the Linyanti and Cuito rivers, in the marshy land called the Okavango Delta.

Several kilometers south, in the dry, arid land beside the Thaoge River, an offshoot of the delta, lay the city of Nokaneng, where the red light was concentrated.

"Nokaneng," Rock mused."Of course."Nokaneng had been discovered, shortly after World War III, to be a major mining site for iron ore and granite.As the newest and most bountiful source of iron to yet be discovered by human beings, Nokaneng had quickly grown from a medium-sized town to a booming metropolis.

Who controlled Nokaneng controlled the world's iron supply, and hence, most major industries on the planet.Dr. Wily had truly planned to cripple civilization: spiritually, physically, and economically.Rock found himself grinding his teeth.

"I don't think I need to tell you that the place is likely to be crawling with renegade metools," Dr. Light said after an interval of silence.

Rock allowed himself the ghost of a wry smile."It's your fault for making the EG series such good mining 'bots."

"So it is."Dr. Light deactivated the holographic display. "Now, go recharge and get ready to make the teleport."

"Good advice," Rock answered, and trudged towards his resting quarters.

On the way, he met Roll, streaked with grease and holding a powerless laser-welder.Holding up a half-finished plasma-buster, she said, "I've been making some modifications, with Dr. Light's help.Maybe you could use them.We've got some ideas."

"Care to tell me about them while I rest up?" Rock asked."In a few hours, I'm off to Nokaneng."

"Sure."Roll brushed her hair out of her eyes, leaving a black streak across her forehead."We've been thinking--some of the Robot Masters could be pretty difficult to dispose of with just a plasma cannon."

Rock closed his eyes."I know.It took far longer than I'd anticipated to destroy Achilles."

"Exac--"Roll did a double take."Did you say . . . Achilles?"

Rock nodded curtly.

"The Prototype?" Roll's voice had grown heavy with horror."_Our Achilles?"_

"I had no choice," Rock half-whispered.

Roll shook her head."Wily's going to really pay for this one."

The twins completed the journey down the hall to Rock's quarters in silence.As the door slid open for the androids, Rock finally spoke."You said there were some ideas about the plasma buster?"

"Yes," Roll nodded, glad to have something else to talk about."If you could make a physical attack on the Robot Masters besides just a plasma burst, maybe it would be helpful."

"I can't see how it would hurt," Rock answered.As he took a step into the door, he felt relief flood over him."I think I'll just lie down for a while," he said, weary."Tell Dr. Light I'll be ready in two hours."

"All right."Sympathy had crept into Roll's voice, cutting Rock more deeply than the Rolling Cutter of the renegade Achilles."You take care of yourself."

*****

Hovering in the sky, the great gold disk that was the sun beat down upon the baked landscape of Nokaneng.The sun's rays reflected off of the red-gold dust that caked the parched surface of the heat-cracked boulders that lay strewn about the horizon.

Were it not for the blue sky, the landscape might haven been mistaken for a Martian desert.

Arid winds swirled the sand into weird patterns that spattered against pebbles and stones on the ground.

But for the sound of those winds, all was silent.In the great city of Nokaneng, nothing stirred.From the center of the city, where bodies lay carelessly arranged in varying poses of gruesome death, to the outskirts where mining equipment lay abandoned and entire mines stood empty, not even the carrion birds dared to make a noise.

Gutsman chuckled."Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow . . . " he muttered to himself.It was a bit of nonsense left in his head from when Dr. Wily had reprogrammed him, but somehow the rhythmic beat of the words appealed to the colossal androbot.

What a perfect day!With his enhanced vision, Gutsman could see, all the way from his vantage point at the top of a rocky hill, the men, women and children he had killed himself.Frowning in disgust, or at least as much as his hinged lantern-jaw would allow him, Gutsman wondered how anything as weak as a human being could be the ruling life-form on a planet.

The memory of the laughably frail human bones snapping between his mighty hands still fresh, Gutsman looked down at his fingers to see if they were still stained with the blood of his victims.

Oh, what a bother--not only were they still stained, but now the blood had dried!It would take precious time to clean his off of his exterior.Searching for something to vent his anger on, Gutsman picked up a large boulder twice his own size and hurled it seventy yards into the desert.

Not yet satisfied, he called over a squad of EG labor 'bots and commanded them to line up in a row.When they had done so, he released his frustration by smashing each one with his titanic fists.

Ah, that was better.There was always something satisfying, Gutsman mused, about extinguishing the spark of life--even if it were only artificially induced life.

He, of course, knew of his colleague's defeat.Cutman had died several hours ago, destroyed by Rock.Gutsman shook his head, once again in disgust."The strong will leave and the weak will die," he muttered to himself.If Gutsman had a motto, that was it.He despised any show of weakness, and that included emotions of pity, mercy, fear, love . . . he could go on and on.

"Took weak to even save yourself," Gutsman spat, and turned to enter his inner sanctum from which he controlled his robots' progress in mining and scavenging.There had been a message from Dr. Wily's partner, James Walken, that some HSL members would be by within the next day or so to "take their rightful due."Gutsman had vowed that if any of the humans disturbed his robots, he would kill every last one of those pathetic organic creatures.

So absorbed in his own thoughts was Gutsman that he didn't notice the needle of lapis fire which stabbed down through the sky and left a defiant, blue figure in the middle of the desert.

*****

Rock could smell death the moment he landed, and it sickened him.

All around him spread the desert, interrupted only by a shining silver thread in the distance that was the River Thaoge.To the north was the city of Nokaneng, hunched in its dark chaos over the clean golden desert like a cancerous growth, waiting to send its winds of plague and death out upon the rest of the world.

Rock did a quick scan and discovered several metools hidden under the sand for a radius of several hundreds of meters, waiting to burst out and fire upon anybody who walked near them.Beyond them by almost half a kilometer was a large construction site, where, before the strike of Dr. Wily's renegade robots, a mine shaft had apparently just been opened.

Checking his energy meter to make sure that none of the bars had flickered to black during his journey from Tokyo, Rock was relieved to find that he was operating well within specified parameters.

Before he had left, Rock had also analyzed the likelihood of which type of Robot Master would be in charge here.After careful calculation, he surmised that due to the harsh sandstorms and heat, as well as the possibility of falling rocks in mine shafts, the most likely Robot masters he would find guarding the place would be Helios models, Hephestas models, or Heracles models.

Since all were equally discomforting for him to think about, he merely charged his plasma buster and hoped for the best, twisting his lip in wry humor at how human he already acted, having lived among them for less than ayear.

The first metool erupted from the sand in an explosion of plasma bursts and scattered pebbles.

Rock had to drop to one knee to avoid the triple-spray of superheated matter that sizzled over his head, and loosed a quick bolt of his own plasma right between the photoreceptors of the renegade metool.

Not stopping to even shield his eyes from the explosion, Rock dashed across the area with the lowest concentration of submerged metools and leaped into the air as a shower of plasma-bolts rocketed past him.Out of close to thirty shots fired by the metools, only two struck home.

Still, that was too many for Rock's liking.Avoiding the metools as best he could, Rock soon found himself playing a demented game of hide-and-seek behind desert boulders.As soon as he saw a metool from around his boulder, Rock would blast it and then run quickly to another boulder while the remaining metools concentrated their attack on the boulder which Rock had just left.

As he fell into the rhythm of it--shoot, duck, run, shoot, duck, run--Rock began to feel like a cowboy from the old western 2-D movies, fighting bandits, reclaiming the honest citizens' town from the evil bandits.

"Some reclamation," he muttered as he ducked a metool's fireball. "I can't even get to the city yet!"

Thankful that metools were not known for their problem-solving capabilities, Rock finally disposed of the last of his robotic pursuers and turned towards the city.His fusion-generator was nowhere near over-reaction point yet, but he had already gained five black counters on his meter.

Swearing in Japanese, Rock took several quick steps towards the construction site.If he could take a shortcut through there, maybe nobody would notice him slipping into the city until it was too late to stop him!

Liking the idea, the raven-haired android picked his way across broken railroad ties and shattered steel until he reached a large, man-sized rise in the stone.After a moment's thought, Rock determined that it must have been one of the large blocks of granite excavated from the mine shaft that never got taken away.

Leaping onto the top of it, Rock nearly lost his balance and fell backward as he came nearly face-to-face with a metool, perched atop the block and already prepared to fire.Only Rock's quick reflexes saved him from further damage.

Immediately taking another leap straight up into the air, Rock fired downward at the metool's exposed inner-layers and shielded his face from the shrapnel as he landed.Making sure to take a good look this time, Rock saw the next metool before it saw him.

Sitting languidly on a larger stone a few meters away, the metool never had a chance to process a warning message before it was destroyed by Rock's plasma-burst.As super-heated shards of metal clattered to the ground around him, Rock leaped to the now vacant stone and pondered his next move.

Directly before him was a deep, if relatively narrow canyon.Although it wasn't more than forty meters across, that was still far more than Rock could jump.If he took the long way around, Rock might not arrive in the city before the Jamming Net was operational.The only choice he saw other than that was riding the cargo-transport pads that spanned the canyon.

No more than eight feet square, the transport pads were made of sturdy iron, and ran along a set of steel cables reinforced with some kind of pipe.Rock grimaced.Not the safest way to travel, he thought, but certainly the quickest.

Making a strange clicking sound as they went, the transport pads moved back and forth at a leisurely pace.Timing his leap carefully, Rock jumped onto the closest pad and stood firmly, waiting.It would take a few minutes to get to the other end of the canyon, but it would all be--

"Scheisse," Rock breathed.Directly in front of him, the pipe had broken, leaving only steel cable to support the weight of the iron pad and Rock.Surely he would fall if he attempted to ride that.

Looking for a quick escape, Rock leaped down to the transport pad below him.Although it was moving slightly faster, Rock was more worried about keeping his balance after the jump than the sudden increase in speed.

Then he saw the track.

Ahead, the pipe was broken in several places, and there wasn't another pad to jump on.In desperation, Rock executed a high leap in the air just as the pad reached the damaged are of the track and tilted downwards at a 90-degree angle.Just as Rock fell back down, with hopes of catching the wire and hand-over-hand pulling himself across, the platform righted itself again, and Rock landed with a shudder.

Too flooded with relief to reflect on the stupidity of his near-fatal leap, Rock noted the further damaged sections ahead.With practice, he became adept at leaping off of the pad when it gave and landing on it just as it righted itself again, and after several nerve-shattering minutes, Rock arrived at the far end of the canyon.

More blocks of solid granite lay piled high ahead--another challenge for Rock.But, more immediately, he heard a familiar buzzing sound.Charging his plasma-buster, Rock ducked and rolled as a DRIM-13 dropped from the sky.

With a judicious blast and some luck, Rock managed to disintegrate the surveillance 'bot before it could do him any damage, but he knew from previous experience that one rarely found DRIM's by themselves.It was usually more useful to send out about four of them.

Sure enough, Rock spotted the rest, pursuing him from across the canyon.

Hoping to confuse them, Rock fired off a round of random plasma-bursts and then headed for the monolithic blocks that made up a sort of giza-wall.Throwing himself into a crack between the stones, he listened as the DRIMs, having lost visual contact with their target, retreated.

Wedged in between the rocks, Rock contemplated his next move.He did not know where the actual entrance to the mine shaft lay, but it couldn't be far.He shook his head slowly, trying to visualize the surrounding area and the likeliest place for the Robot Master in charge to be stationed.

Although it would be more logical to proceed directly to the center of Nokaneng, where the Energy Net would most likely be anchored, something kept nagging at Rock to keep on his course through the mine shaft.

_Intuition?He blinked.Could an android like himself have a so-called "gut feeling?"Remembering to bring the subject up to Dr. Light if he returned from this mission, Rock pushed his feet against opposite sides of the crack in the stone and levered himself up into a standing position._

After some creative squirming, Rock excavated himself from the crevice in the stone and dropped nimbly down to the other side of the pyramid-like stack of granite blocks.The way ahead would not be easy.

For several meters, there was no cover: only bare rock and construction wire left curled on the ground.Several large cracks and holes lay in his line of sight, their depth unknown.Far ahead, girders supported a large steel platform, presumably the beginnings of the mining control center for this particular shaft.

Well, there was nothing for it except to continue on, Rock decided.If he sat here all day, trying to decide what to do, the Energy Jamming Net would be up and unbreakable.

Keeping a wary eye on the skies for more DRIM's, Rock was almost startled when he came upon a mining 'bot.At first, it had blended in with a pile or rubble nearby, and had escaped Rock's attention.

Standing a little taller than Rock's five feet, the mining robot was painted a generic industrial yellow, except for the head module, which was a black orb capped with a metool-like construction hat.In front of it, the 'bot held a large welding shield, painted in black and yellow stripes.

Without warning, the mining 'bot picked up a broken pickax from the pile of rubble that had camouflaged it and hurled the tool at Rock's head with unnatural speed.

Dropping into a duck-and-roll, Rock let loose a stream of plasma-bursts and managed to blast the welding shield out of the 'bot's hand by pure force.Blessing his good luck, Rock righted himself from the roll and shattered the robot's steel head with a blast of superheated plasma.

Collapsing as if it were filmed in slow-motion, the flaming wreckage of the mining robot toppled at its full length at Rock's feet.

Taking a half moment to inwardly apologize for such a waste of materials and hard work on the designer's part, Rock continued, hopping small crevices as he went, until he arrived at the half-completed foundation for the mining control center.

With a high leap, Rock found himself virtually face-to-face with another one of the mining robots, this kind the same as the last.Before the robot could react to Rock's presence, Rock jammed his plasma buster into the robot's thoracic cavity, where its fusion reactor would be located, and released a point-blank blast of concentrated plasma.

Shielding his eyes from the light of the explosion and waiting for the burning rain of superheated metal and half-disintegrated steel to dissipate, Rock quickly used the smoke bleeding in great billows from the robot's chest as concealment to travel the rest of the way across the foundation platform without being detected by any other robot sentinels.

Hearing a scratching sound of a nearby robot, Rock took a step forward, further into the smoke . . .

. . .and found himself plummeting into nothingness.Rock's vision twisted crazily as he toppled off the edge of the platform, flailing his arms wildly, hoping to catch a spur of rock--anything--to slow his descent into who knew what?

The blue android's fingertips brushed the edge of something metal, and Rock desperately closed his fingers around his sole hope of deliverance from death in a crushing grip.A second later, his arm was nearly wrenched out of its socket as his fall was abruptly halted.Rock gnashed his teeth and stifled a yelp of pain.

Nearly numb with the sudden burst of excess energy his emergency systems had provided him with--the robotic equivalent of an adrenaline rush--Rock tilted his helmeted head to catch a glimpse of what lay below.

A large chasm extended down into infinity, or so it seemed.Rock hung precariously over a ledge made of now-broken steel "T"-bars and crumbled stone.Perhaps it had been part of the foundation once, but now it was unrecognizable rubble.

Below that, the chasm yawned, with only the hint of ground at the bottom.

Rock considered his options.If he let go of the ledge, he would certainly fall onto the ledge.It looked sturdy enough to support his weight, but where would he go from there?There was no certainty that he could ever get back up, and even less that he could make it to the bottom of the chasm alive.

Still, if he didn't make a decision soon, his grip would slip and Rock's choice would be made for him.

Rock gritted his teeth and loosened his hold on the edge of the cliff.Once again, his inner gyroscopic meters went crazy as all sense of direction lost meaning to Rock but for the tug of gravity.

It was with an unpleasant jolt that Rock crashed to a stop on top of the pile of rock, dirt and splintered metal.His knee joints flexed involuntarily and Rock found himself on his hands and knees, cursing.

Dusty light filtered down from above by now, as most of the smoke generated by the wreckage of the mining robot above had cleared, and Rock could see more clearly to the bottom of the chasm.Two large platforms, constructed of leftover "T"-bars and cement, lay to the side and several meters down.Rock frowned as he recognized the blue-green carapaces of circling DRIMs hovering around the platforms.

Below that was a long, smooth shaft the descended into areas hidden to Rock's view.The raven-haired android blinked and adjusted his optical focus.Was that sunlight he saw down there?It seemed to be natural light, though pale with dust and smoke.

As Rock pondered the implications of his discovery, the ledge under him broke.

Scrabbling for a hand-hold on the unforgiving stone that made up the wall of the chasm, Rock fell.The syntheflesh on his fingertips tore away as he vainly tried to grip the rough surface of the wall.Before he knew it, Rock had fallen past both platforms and into the dark shaft.

Finally, his steel-plated fingers found purchase on the stone, and in the semi-darkness, sparks angrily screamed from the surface of the scoured rock as Rock's descent gradually slowed.After a few moments, Rock hung once again in mid-air, supported only by the strength of his fingers and the rock which they were stuck into.

Every warning alarm in Rock's system was screaming for attention; his fingers hurt like hell and his sense of balance was so confused that Rock had begun to doubt his optical sensors' data input.

Forcing the pain down to manageable levels and taking a deep breath to recharge his system, Rock looked down once again, and smiled wryly.He hung no more then three meters above the ground at the bottom of the shaft.

Releasing his death-grip on the stone furrows his steel fingers had carved into the walls, Rock dropped the remaining distance and landed heavily at the bottom of the chasm, blinking in the sudden brilliance.

As he had suspected, the light was, indeed, sunlight.

He had fallen down a shaft carved below the chasm, which, in itself, was merely a large crack in the cliff-face of a larger chasm.Squinting to see through the dust and haze that pervaded the bottom of the larger chasm he now stood in, Rock could see broken construction equipment and a large, reinforced steel door on the opposite side of the chasm's floor.

Then, as the dust settled slowly, Rock saw the rest of the chasm floor, and gritted his teeth.

Spread out before him was a large plain, blasted sable with ash and carbon scoring.Rocks worn smooth with the force of fire-scouring made a grim mosaic with human skulls and splintered bone.Rock felt the rage rise within him.The Robot Master responsible would pay for this gross injustice.

So absorbed was Rock in his thoughts of vengeful justice that he didn't even notice the trash-compactor robot on the side of the canyon until it moved.Twenty five meters tall or more, the massive LighTech trash compactor was no less a threat now than its exact duplicate had been in Sydney near Cutman's inner fortress.

"_Scheisse," Rock swore in German as the massive ton-plus robot hurtled towards him, leap after gargantuan leap.To fall under its square monopod would mean instant death for Rock, and the blue-armored android knew it._

Rock effortlessly shifted his damaged hand into plasma-buster form . . .

. . . or at least, that was the plan.Rock started in half-shock, half-pain as his entire arm flared with electricity and numbed him with pain.He observed through vision made pale with pain overload that the inner components of his hand, exposed by torn-away syntheflesh, twisted and half-shifted to buster configuration, and then collapsed back into a steel skeleton.

So, it would have to be his other hand that he used for a blaster.Rock snarled in irritation at the inconvenience.This could prove to be fatal in combat with a Robot master, but he had no choice but to continue.

As the trash compactor 'bot drew closer, Rock darted towards the door on the far side of the wall while hitting the robot with a steady barrage of plasma bursts.Fighting for breath as something crashed down on his back, Rock dropped into a tuck-and-roll, desperate to avoid annihilation.

Several tons of titanium crashed to the ground behind Rock, blasting splinters of stone into the air and crushing both rock and human bones beneath it.A hailstorm of rubble showered down on Rock as he frantically pulled himself to his feet and dashed the few remaining meters to the reinforced steel door at the end of the canyon.

With the massive robot directly behind him and only one leap away, Rock blasted the control panel of the door and gratefully slid under the slowly rising sheet of metal as the door ponderously grated upwards.

He was safe.

Rock sat still and let his auto-repair systems work on the damage done to his hand.Taking a few deep breaths to recharge his system, Rock took stock of his surroundings. The trash-compactor 'bot had followed the standard industrial 'bot philosophy of "out of sight, out of program," and so had abandoned its hunt for its small blue quarry.

The large door had retracted into the stone face of the chasm, allowing pale sunlight to stream into the space where Rock sat, dimly illuminating the passageway ahead.From what Rock could see, the passage ahead was a square tunnel about fifteen feet on a side and about a hundred meters long.Sitting perfectly still and almost blending in with the boulder-sized rocks which dotted the sides of the passage were four EG-400 labor robots, presumably ready to fire on any intruders.

So this was the inner sanctum.Rock closed his eyes for a moment before standing.Only one arm was suitable for plasma shooting as yet, but time was rapidly running out, and Rock had no guarantee that he would meet the Robot master in charge at the end of the tunnel.After all, where was it written that each Robot Master remained in one place for Rock to find?

Brushing away all other thoughts, Rock charged forward, his buster at the ready.As each of the metools tilted their protective helmets up to fire at Rock, they were decimated by the burning force of Rock's plasma-bullets.

Charging down the hall, disposing of the renegade metools without breaking stride, Rock began to feel like an unstoppable azure juggernaut.His robotic "adrenaline" flowed through him as Rock reached the end of the passage way and found himself faced with another reinforced steel door.

With an ominous clanking, the door grated upwards, revealing a large stone chamber.

Rock stepped through, the power flowing through him.He was invincible.

Then he saw the Robot Master.

*****

Gutsman had removed the dried human blood from his mighty hands with a wire brush, and now waited in his control center, awaiting word from his sentries.In less than twenty minutes, the Energy Jamming Net would be complete, and Gutsman could focus his energies on setting the trap for the Human Supremacy League, which would be arriving any time.

It had been an idea of Gutsman's a few hours ago, after he came inside.

How could such a weak, greedy and fundamentally stupid creature such as the human being rise to be the dominant life form on this planet?The more Gutsman thought about it, the more it seemed that a New Order was called for: one in which robots ruled supreme.

"Robots of the World!March!!"

Gutsman did not know where the quote came from, but he assumed that Dr. Wily had somehow left it in there while reprogramming him.Gutsman remembered every part of his life before reprogramming, but it seemed as if it were all a--what was the human word?

Dream.That's what it was.He had been Heracles then, the first of the LighTech Wilderness Reclamation Androbots.Everything before his rebirth at the hands of his master seemed to be a shadowy nightmare of forced labor and arrogant, organic life.Gutsman's eyes turned red with hatred.How pathetic they were!How absolutely disgusting!

Pity, love, forgiveness . . . all of these weak and contemptible emotions were the plague that those flesh-made vermin carried.Such disgusting weakness deserved to be exterminated--and that was how Gutsman had come to the idea of killing the HSL looters when they arrived in Nokaneng.

As soon as the Jamming Net was in place . . .

Gutsman heard the grating sound of a steel door opening at the end of the tunnel.

Ah, good!His sentries had returned.Now he could check the progress for the Net and prepare for his triumph over the human race.Gutsman took several short, waddling steps across the large stone-hewn room and pressed a secret button on the wall.

With barely a whisper, the "stone" which had covered the hidden computer terminal slid away, and Gutsman pulled up the energy-to-satellite-interface program that was his to execute at the proper time.

A sound like distant thunder caused Gutsman to freeze.What the hell was going on?Had that been an explosion?

A second sound, identical to the first, confirmed the giant androbot's suspicions.

Somebody was destroying the metool guardians!

Gutsman flexed his arms and made a gargantuan fist.Well, fine.He would deal with this upstart soon enough.Perhaps it was Rock, come to meet his destiny!Gutsman chuckled deep in his huge metallic throat.

The door to his chamber grated open, and Gutsman beheld the enemy.

"Rock," he growled.

The android at the end of the room was much changed since the time Gutsman had last seen him, but the disgustingly human face was still the same.Gutsman took stock of the blue android's new armor and arm cannon.

"Nice hat," the massive androbot sneered as he caught sight of the steel bombardier's helmet."What're you supposed to be--some sort of blue bomber?"

"What a stupid name," Rock said sardonically at the other end of the room.Gutsman could tell that his adversary was taken aback, despite his bravado.It was one of those pathetic human traits that the fool Dr. Light had programmed into his creation.

Gutsman shifted his stance."I trust you've come to make full apologies for decreasing our number of generals?" he snapped."Cutman was a special friend of mine."It was a lie, of course, but it sounded good.

"Huh."Rock hefted the egg-shaped weapon that had replaced his hand at the end of his arm."I've come to kill you."

A laugh with no humor in it escaped from Gutsman's voice-synthesis chip."Oh, you may find that to be more difficult than you imagine, little man," he laughed.The door slammed shut behind Rock as he said this."Let's see what you're really made of, Rock."

An expression that might have been pain flitted across the android's face."I am Rockman."

Gutsman growled."You're dead!"He turned and punched the wall with a massive fist and then, as if on cue, held up his arm to catch the massive boulder which fell from the ceiling.With a howl that was half Japanese war cry and half binary code, Gutsman hurled the giant stone at Rock.

His eyes lighting in triumph, Gutsman watched the huge stone crush his opponent.

That had been far too easy.

He took a waddling step forward--

--and the stone exploded in a shower of gravel and fire.The android that was Rockman stood, apparently unscathed, where once a boulder had been.

Gutsman blinked in momentary confusion and grunted in surprise and pain as his main energy-transfer crystal--set directly in the middle of his chest--was hit by a gold-white orb of crackling plasma.

Gutsman had been Heracles once--designed to bear thousands pounds' worth of pressure on his skeletal frame.For all intents and purposes, he was invincible.

However, Rock had helped to design and him, and might know of some hidden weak points--

Gutsman frowned grimly as he realized just how dangerous this fool tool-user could be.Another plasma shot screamed through the air at the Herculean androbot, but Gutsman easily absorbed it with his armored forearm.

"You're tough, 'Rockman' but you must realize that you're too human for me to let you live."Gutsman flexed his huge fingers."Ashes to ashes and all that . . ." he added, and punched the wall again, letting loose a shower of boulders.

Rockman shook his head and kept up his steady barrage of plasma-ammunition."You owe your existence to humans," he snapped."Doesn't it bother you in the least to have become a murderer?"

Gutsman staggered and nearly missed catching a fallen boulder as one of Rockman's shots penetrated his armor and hit the giant robot squarely between the photoreceptors.The vision in his left "eye" flickered for several moments before fading to a dull black and white display.

With a half-grunt, Gutsman hurled the boulder at Rockman and bellowed."Murderer?I'm not the one hunting down my own people and slaying them for the pleasure of that antichrist, Dr. Light!"Taking a menacing step toward his quarry, Gutsman growled."I'm merely dispensing justice against your human friends.They're the ones that nearly destroyed the planet through their greed and stupidity."

The giant robot could tell he had--to use a human phrase--struck a nerve.Rockman's face had grown drawn and angry.Large, blue eyes narrowed in anger."Justice?"Rockman spat the words like a curse."There's no such thing."

Gutsman could tell that his opponent was severely damaged--the blue-armored android was breathing heavily and hunched over.One quick, judicious strike could end this all.

Snatching a boulder from the ground, Gutsman hurled it at his surprised enemy.

Almost too fast to track, Rockman dropped to the ground and rolled clear of the thrown missile.

Gutsman had never been designed for speed or agility, and so when Rockman came out of his roll directly before Gutsman and pressed his plasma buster against the giant's head, Gutsman could make no move to defend himself.

Except one.

Making a fist the size of a human infant with each one of his hands, he clapped them together with terrifying force on either side of Rockman's head, exploding all circuits within.

At least, that was what Gutsman had hoped.

He never knew if he succeeded, because as soon as he began to make a fist, there was a loud explosion from the side of his head where Rockman held the egg-shaped buster and everything went dark.

*****

Rock sighed, his voice ragged with fatigue.

Gutsman lay sprawled across the floor in front of the tool-user-made-battle robot, the right half of his head disintegrated by white-hot plasma.Smoke had started to bleed from the hole, floating upwards and collecting on the ceiling in a macabre imitation of incendiary blood.

A quick glance at his own energy meter told Rock what he had already suspected--he had only two gold operating bars on which to teleport back to Dr. Light.Still, it was more than he had had last time.

Glowering at the computer console set into the wall, Rock paced across the room and booted up the Jamming Net's program.

Formulating the most malignant and violent thoughts he could into a single expression of hatred and destruction, Rock quickly translated them into binary and downloaded them into the computer's main drive.

It was the most effective virus Rock had ever seen.Within seconds, the screen had blanked out, and thin wisps of smoke had begun to trail out from behind it.The black-haired android shook his head sadly.What had he become?

Although a computer was not a sentient being, deliberately downloading such a potent virus to one felt to Rock as if he were cruelly mistreating a small animal.

Klaxons began to sound in the chamber, and Rock disappeared in a stream of blue-white incandescence, with nobody to witness his departure.


	7. Underworld

"The best way to neutralize these Irregulars is to freeze 'em up

_"The best way to neutralize these Irregulars is to freeze 'em up.I'll tell you what; I haven't met one of those cross-wired bastards yet that didn't run from a blast of my Ice Shotgun. If there's a robot made that likes being frozen into a block, I haven't met 'im."_

--Irregular Hunter Arctus, before his infection with the Irregular virus and subsequent transformation into Icy Penguigo (Chill Penguin).****

** **

**Chapter Six**

**Underworld**

Blistering heat radiated from the sun-baked stones littering the rubble in Nokaneng.

A sole metool wandered aimlessly between ruined buildings and the gutted frameworks that had once made up tall skyscrapers.Smoke and yellow dust floated in front of its photoreceptors, making its view down the street hazy.

With little difficulty, the metool negotiated its way over piles of rubble, its photoreceptors gathering information as it went.Here and there, it would stop to seemingly examine something more closely.

With almost human actions, the metool turned around and around repeatedly, as if hoping to get a glimpse of something just out of its line of sight.Finally, it stopped and lowered itself to the ground, in imitation of a human sulk.

Sudden inspiration struck whatever intelligence inhabited the metool, and it headed towards a nearby building, once a large skyscraper.

Laboring intensely all the way, the metool made its way up the stairs of the ruined edifice.After nearly two hours had passed, the knee-high, domed robot finished its monumental journey; it had reached the roof of the building.

Taking no time to recharge its severely-taxed energy system, the metool began a ponderous sweep with its photoreceptors, scrutinizing every square centimeter of the ground that it could see from its vantage point up on high.

At times, the metool would twitch as it looked back at a spot it had already inspected, as if expecting to see a hidden intruder come crawling out of the shadows, thinking that the coast was clear.

A low rumble began to the south, growing louder and shaking the buildings of the city, until the metool could no longer ignore it.

Scurrying to the other side of the roof, the metool optically pinpointed the location from which the noise had originated--Gutsman's lair.

A massive ball of fire rose into the air, roaring like a tortured beast, until it disintegrated over the city.Flame fell in lurid streaks, limning the wasted city in shades of vermilion, crimson, scarlet and gold.

Had the metool turned a few seconds before, it would have seen the tell-tale line of blue fire that spoke of a teleport device.

In the depths of the aptly-named Skull Castle, William Albert Wily slammed his fists against the computer console in rage and frustration.Utilizing metools as long-distance spy 'bots was useful but frustrating.It would take him too long to personally teleport himself to Nokaneng now, though there was little enough that he could do.

Gutsman had fallen, and with him, the Energy Jamming Net.

Dr. Wily slammed his hands down again and screamed an unintelligible German curse.How could that pathetic blue robot keep defeating Dr. Wily's generals?_How?It made no sense!Dr. Wily had re-programmed those androbots to be masters of death!How could a simple __laboratory assistant keep killing them?_

"Rock!" Wily snarled."Damn you, how do you do it?_How!!"_

To the right of Dr. Wily, his creation stirred, disturbed by the noise.

Dr. Wily allowed his furious scowl to soften somewhat.His creation was truly a work of art.An assassin robot, it was the most advanced piece of work that Dr. Wily had ever completed.

Equipped with a holographic projector, the robot was designed to study and emulate anything Dr. Wily wished.It could project thermal fields to match its exterior appearance, so that even an infrared scan of it would reveal nothing but what it appeared to be.It was even equipped with a small matter-synthesis unit so that it could form a sort of "skin" to that matched its appearance.

Of course, without its disguise on, the robot didn't look too impressive.Its head looked vaguely human, but the resemblance pretty much stopped there.Its shoulders were hunched and wide, bristling with wires.Two large cable-bunches ran from its back to its head, making the shoulders seem even bigger, as did the flared epaulet-structures which served as armor.

The body was slightly cone-shaped, with the narrow part at the waist, and was covered with lights, indicators and various projection modules.Eventually, all that delicate equipment would be covered by heat-resistant armor that allowed only the projection lenses to show through.

The legs were strong, but thin, making the robot appear highly unstable.Only a madman would dream up something as structurally twisted as this; somehow, against all expectation, it was stable and quite functional.

Of course, its purpose was simple.All it had to do was emulate Dr. Light, sneak into Light's laboratory, and kill Light, Rock and Roll.That would put an end to this nuisance.If the robot survived, Dr. Wily would, of course, employ it to kill the leaders of the world's most powerful nations.

"Docman" Dr. Wily had named it.That idiot James Walken had called it "Doc Robot," but the name didn't really bother Wily that much.

Wily shook his head, amazed by his own genius.The German roboticist picked up a piece of armor and motioned for Docman to step forward.Obediently, the robot took a few lumbering steps forward and stopped in front of Dr. Wily.

Wily bolted the armor plate to Docman's torso and stood back to admire his work.

"Rockman," he commanded.

The space around Docman seemed to shimmer and twist for a fraction of a second.Then, with a brief flash of light, a perfect duplicate of Rockman stood where Docman had once been.Dr. Wily nodded in approval.

"Destroy that," he ordered, pointing at a small metool at the edge of the laboratory.

"Rockman's" arm snapped up, metamorphisised into a an egg-shaped arm cannon, and blasted the metool dead between its photoreceptors, scattering flaming debris and ash.

"Dr. Light," Wily commanded.

Again, the air surrounding Docman twisted, and suddenly, where "Rockman" had once stood, now there was a perfect clone of Dr. Thomas Light.

"Good."Dr. Wily grinned and set down his wrench.He was about to make another comment, but searing pain flashed behind his eyes, and the wild-haired man fell to the floor, shaking.Tears burned at the corners of Dr. Wily's eyes as the pain in his head became almost unbearable.

_So much pain . . .when will it stop?_

Dr. Wily was dimly aware of his own voice screaming German curses, and dull flares of pain as he rolled on the floor, over tools and into table legs.Finally, mercifully, the pain faded, and Dr. Wily was left lying prostrate and sweat-drenched on the floor, low whimpers escaping his throat.

What had he been doing?

Wily grappled with the question for a moment before giving up in disgust and dismay.Slowly, he stood, ignoring the cramps in his legs.What had happened to him?He recalled sitting at the computer, looking at something . . .

Images of fire and a sun-baked city skyline briefly flashed through his consciousness, but Dr. Wily had only a fleeting half-second to catch them.

Docman . . .

Something about Docman . . .

He turned and scanned his laboratory.Soot blackened the walls, lined with mechanized guardians.Here was a cyclops, constructed of stone and steel.There was a huge, mechanized dragon, its plasma-breath array not yet fully operational.He would probably transport that to another Skull Castle, Dr. Wily decided.After all, who could possibly storm his fortress and defeat his Polyphemus and Docman?

Not one person alive possessed the abilities to complete such a herculean task.

Except for maybe . . .

The pain grew in Dr. Wily's head again, and he desperately shook it, as if to somehow shake the intense throbbing out of his skull.

Finding a single object to focus on, Dr. Wily's eyes fell on Docman, still projecting his hologram of Dr. Light.

_Tom?Here?_

Panic flared in Dr. Wily's pain-crazed mind, and in an instant, he had pulled a laser pistol and fired at the hated enemy.

With preternaturally quick reflexes, Doctor Light dodged the shot and hid behind a table.

. . . and the madness passed.Dr. Wily stared angrily at the laser pistol, appalled at what he had almost done.Weeks of work had almost been destroyed in a single moment of stupidity.

A soft whining noise emanated from behind the table.

Docman?Dr. Wily vaguely recalled programming emotional responses, or at least starting to . . .Had he scared his robot?

Taking a few cautious steps forward, Dr. Wily peeked behind the table, where "Dr. Light" crouched, his hands over his head and whimpering piteously.

"I'm sorry," Dr. Wily said."I'm sorry, my son . . ."

Several seconds passed in silence before a snake-like smile found its way to Dr. Wily's features.

"Blues," he commanded.

*****

Upon his arrival in Tokyo, Rock was met with twin feelings of relief and alarm.

He had survived his encounter with the twisted Gutsman; that was good, and no small feat.Rock had been seriously doubtful of his chances of survival during the battle.He had planned to take a few hours--possibly even a day or two--to recuperate and recharge.Perhaps then Dr. Light and Roll could make the modifications to his armor and weapons.

The android had anticipated congratulations from Dr. Light, or maybe Roll telling him "Welcome back!"Perhaps he would teleport into an empty room during a break in the pair's work schedule, or maybe Eddie would be there to greet him with his binary language.

The one thing, in fact, that Rock had not expected, was what greeted him.

Harsh lights glared down on the android, momentarily blinding him with their halogen brilliance.The world was abuzz with loud voices, each vying to be heard over the last, and each more intense in volume.

Rock lowered his hand from his face and relaized that he had unwittingly dropped into a crouch, ready for battle.

It was then that he saw the reporters.

The room exploded with questions, all piled one on top of the other.Rock could barely distinguish individual voices in the clamor.

" . . . savior of the human race . . ."

" . . . here in Tokyo, live with the phenomenal man responsible for the liberation of both Nokaneng and Sydney .. ."

". . . reporting live from Tokyo, home of the super-robot Rockman . . ."

". . . drove off a horde of homicidal robots--a true modern-day superhero . . ."

". . . maybe we can get a comment . . ."

". . . if I can just get close for a moment . . ."

Rock lowered his arm the rest of the way and blinked slowly, stupidly.After a moment, it occurred to him that he was still stained with dust, circulatory fluids (his own and Gutsman's) and wearing armor that had been virtually crushed beneath his enemy's onlsaught.

Embarrassment crept over the android.He was drained, emotionally and physically, and in no shape to deal with the media.How had they gotten here, anyway?

"Rock!"

Rock zeroed in on the familiar voice and saw Roll wading impatiently through the sea of bristling video equipment, antennae, microphones, and electrical cables, accompanied by the reporters, technicians and cameramen that went along with it all.The android-girl pushed through it all, apologizing and reaching for Rock's hand.

"Clear some room!"That was Dr. Light's voice, at the back of the room."Let's have some space--he's damaged!"

Rock heaved himself up and gratefully took Roll's arm for support.His "sister" guided him through the herd of media spokespeople, all of whom were delivering some sort of monologue about the emotional poignancy of the scene.

"Get him to the lab!" Dr. Light instructed, "I'll handle the reporters!"

Roll nodded curtly and continued to help Rock in keeping his balance.He noted, with no small amount of humiliation, that one of his circulatory hoses had torn again, and he was "bleeding" on the carpet through his stomach.He pressed his hand against the wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of green-black liquid.

It occurred to Rock that Dr. Light might have invited the press to give some hope to the rest of the world; if everybody saw that Rockman had twice battled and defeated Wily's minions, then maybe that would inspire resistance elsewhere.

_Didn't think much about how I'd feel, Rock thought bitterly to himself, __but then that's what this whole "hero business" is about, isn't it--putting up a brave front?_

He slowly stopped and straightened, ignoring Roll's protests.As he turned to face the room full of faces, he noticed a correspondent from almost every major country on the planet--which meant that Dr. Light had called them before Rock had even returned from battling Cutman.Rock's lip twitched.

A hush fell over the room, as everybody waited for words from this hero who had delivered humanity from evil twice, against impossible odds.

Forcing the ghost of a grin to his face and ignoring how hoarse and cracked his voice sounded (his voice-synthesis module must have gotten partially fried in the explosion of Gutsman's lair), Rock spoke.

"Two down.Four to go," he rasped, hating himself for the cliché, but knowing that it would give the media something to chew on.

Then he collapsed completely.

*****

Iceman frowned.

"Wrong answer, human," snapped the parka-clad androbot.

The man in front of him was swathed in a similar parka, but dark blue instead of the pale frost-colored azure of Iceman's own.His eyebrows and moustaches were, rimed with frozen vapor, twitched nervously.

"You can't get away with it," he rasped, the Antarctic air hurting his lungs as he breathed in the intense cold."Rockman will save us.I'll never surrender the key to you."

"Iwill have control of this plant, with or without your help," Iceman said sardonically.Behind him was a pile of dead bodies, all in one frozen condition or another.Each was horribly skewered by icicles fired at superhuman speed.Frozen blood stained the perfect transparency of the icicles a sick vermilion hue.

The man, director of the Water Purification Plant, allowed himself a bitter grin.After all, what did he have to lose?"If you think that threatening me will ensure my cooperation, you're sadly mistaken."He bit each syllable off, and the frozen atmosphere painted his breath before him in frosty shades of silver and white.

Iceman formed an icicle from the moisture in the air and hurled it with impossible speed at the man, pinning the human to the wall by his now-skewered arm.The man screamed as muscle fiber tore and blood froze on the tip of the icicle.

"Where is the key?" Iceman demanded."If you do not tell me, I will kill you."

"Rockman will come," the man gasped, his vision dimming."Rockman will stop you."

Iceman felt his fury rising.With one swift motion he created a razor-sharp icicle, lunged forward, and impaled the human being through his chest cavity.

As the human twitched out its last on the ground, Iceman curled his lip."Idiot.As if _I could be defeated by a pathetic tool user robot."Iceman shook his head.Cutman and Gutsman had both fallen at the hands of this upstart, but he could not possibly be defeated by such a fool.Rock was an idealistic idiot who didn't know the first thing about war._

But Gutsman had been a worthy opponent . . .

Unnerved by this sudden wave of doubt, Iceman brutally kicked the dead human again and again until he knew he had shattered every rib.Then, as an afterthought, he opened his mouth and blew moisturized air into the room, freezing it with his matter-synthesis module.

When he left the control room of the World Water Purification Plant, Iceman knew that nobody would guess that the large mound of ice and snow behind him was really a pile of over fifteen human bodies that had once belonged to the core research team.

Rockman _would come.Iceman was sure of that._

Not that the Antarctic exploration androbot was afraid of the tool-user; far from it.If any idea was laughable, it was that a simple laboratory assistant could defeat a warrior such as Iceman.Still, Iceman found doubt gnawing at the back of his mind.Angry at himself for such weak and foolish thoughts, Iceman stormed out of the plant and looked over his realm.

Although he easily controlled all of Antarctica with his robots, Iceman's central stronghold was here in New Shirewick, almost at the South Pole.Here was the World Water Purification Plant--vital to human survival on this planet.Iceman would enjoy destroying it.

Of course, he was forbidden to do such until the command from Dr. Wily.Iceman frowned again, the haughty lines of his face almost human.Dr. Wily was surely taking his time in giving the last command, wasn't he?First, he had delayed in ordering the attack, and now he was waiting to give Iceman his final order.

Had Iceman had any say in the matter, the Plant would have been long destroyed.However, he was firmly programmed against destroying the Plant until he received orders to do so.He had even tried once to defy his orders, but his body, damn its weakness, had buckled under the waves of pain that accompanied the ultimatum.

So he would wait until his master had told him to do otherwise.

In the meantime, it would probably behoove him to check his defenses--not that Rockman posed any threat to the might Iceman . . .

*****

"What?"James Walken's fist smashed down upon the desk.

The man who stood before the leader of the Human Supremacy League shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot, and resisted the urge to wipe his forehead with his sleeve.Despite the fact that he was a full head taller than the cinnamon-eyed Walken, the man was sweating.

"I don't know the details, sir, but Nokaneng has fallen, and with it, the Energy Jamming Net."The man squirmed uncomfortably under the fiery glare of his superior."The news stations are all saying that it's this 'Rockman' robot."

"Rockman," Walken snarled, his knuckles whitening as his fist clenched even tighter."So, the little robot boy wants to play in the Big League?Let's see what we can do for him?"

The man, whose name was Juan, ran his hands through coal-black hair."Sir, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea--he's already destroyed two of our--"

Juan found himself a second later sprawled on the floor at the feet of a livid James Walken, laser pistol aimed at his head.

"Am I wrong?" Walken said, tightly controlled, "or did you just imply that a _robot is superior to our human army?"_

"N-no, sir," Juan stuttered."I'm sorry, sir.I wasn't thinking."

"I pay you to think," Walken snapped, his grip on the trigger mechanism of the laser pistol never loosening, "It's your job to think, right Juan?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Juan," Walken said in almost light, conversational tone, "tell me why you said something without thinking.Are you trying to cheat me out of the honest money that I pay to bomb factories and level cities?"

Juan swallowed.This was bad."No, sir.It just slipped out."

"I see."Walken took a deep breath."Juan, explain to me why our mission is important.Explain to me why I bother to pay people like you millions of dollars per month to keep this pathetic planet in my palm of my hand."

Juan swallowed again, mainly because that was all he could do in his position that he was reasonably sure wouldn't get him killed."Robots are inferior to us," Juan recited."They are lower than humans in every way, and need to be obliterated from the face of this world because they are Satan's creatures."

"That's right.Good boy," Walken allowed Juan an expression of relief."You destroy robots and the people who make them because it's God's will.I am only a tool of the Almighty.If He had not chosen me to do His work, the earth would suffer from a plague of robots and sin.Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Juan answered.

"You may stand," Walken said."Now, I will allow you to express your educated opinion on how we should handle the situation with this so-called hero who wishes to keep mankind enslaved to his own inventions.And remember that honesty, Juan, is always the best policy."

"I say we roast 'em," Juan said.

James Walken smiled."There.That was easy, wasn't it?Now, I'm putting you in charge of the task force that will hunt down and destroy this Rockman.If you fail, God himself will condemn you.If you succeed, your place in heaven is assured."

"Thank you, sir," said Juan, and left the room, badly shaken.

James Walken sat back in his leather recliner behind his polished oak desk and took a sip of coffee.It was God's will that robots be obliterated from this Earth, and thus it was James Walken's holy mission to carry out that will.

Dr. Wily was a strange companion in this undertaking, but a necessary one.Sometimes, Walken reflected, it was necessary to deal with the devil in order to carry out God's will.Not that Walken enjoyed it; in the contrary.Dr. Wily was the Enemy, in strictly logical terms; he was one of the world leaders in robot manufacture.Still, he was working towards a goal which Walken admired--the liberation of man from machine.

As of late, Dr. Wily had stayed hidden in his laboratory, which made James Walken suspicious.Still, as long as Wily was on Walken's side, then the leader of the HSL had nothing to worry about.

Wily as an enemy . . . that was something that Walken did not envy this Rockman.

And Dr. Light . . . _he would pay for this with his life.He was more the Enemy than Wily, and it had been he who bore the responsibility for the tragedy which had opened up this path in Walken's life._

Taking another gulp of coffee, Walken stood and left his office, nearly stepping on a small roach on his way out.

Had he been more observant, he would have seen that the roach's antennae were made of copper wire . . .

*****

Rock awoke in the "operating room," as he had come to think of it.

His damaged hand had been fixed with speed and care, and all sensations of pain had left him for the moment.Banishing unwanted images of Achilles and Heracles both exploding by his hand, Rock's eyes lit on Roll.

"Two down, four to go?"Roll looked at him with a mixture of amusement and annoyance."Did that Robot Master hit you in the head or something?What a stupid, cliché thing to say!"

Rock grimaced as he sat up."Nice to see you, too."

"If I had a week to sit down and calculate all the moronic, overused expressions you _possibly could have utilized, that would've been at the top of the list!"Roll tossed her hair over her shoulder."What on earth possessed you to say such a dumb thing?"_

Rock stood and tested his balance."The reporters loved it, didn't they?"

Roll snorted."Take a look at the Holovid."So saying, she led Rock into the living room, where the Holovid was running, showing eighteen different channels.Each channel was broadcasting some reporter who blathered on about Rock's bravery in the face of impossible odds and his heroism.

"I think they're overstating it," Rock muttered after one particular station--CNN--gave an exceptionally flattering account of his battle with both Robot Masters.

"Forget Superman," said the anchor, "we've got a new superhero for a new age--let's hear it for Megaman."

"I think I've heard that pun enough," Roll snapped."It's getting just a bit tiresome."

"I like Rockman better," Rock said by way of response.Of course, he hated both names--they made him out to be some sort of hero, and all he cold see himself as was a murderer.

_Slaying my own kind, Rock bitterly thought, remembering Gutsman's accusation._

"Want to talk about it?" Roll's voice intruded on Rock's brooding.

"It was Heracles," Rock answered."Wily's got _our prototypes doing the dirty work.He was so completely different . . . there were bodies everywhere . . .Roll, I don't know if I can keep doing this."_

"You have to."Roll's statement was flat."Wily's escalated his attack since you defeated Gutsman.Now there are renegade robots attacking everywhere.And if you don't go to New Shirewick within the next day, Earth will be completely at Wily's mercy; the humans can't hold out much longer on the reserves of water that aren't controlled by Wily's Army down in Antarctica.

Rock sighed."You're right, of course.I suppose I'll be dealing with an Orpheus model down there.Probably Orpheus himself, although he'll have renamed himself something like Frostman or Freezeman or Iceman."

Roll put a hand on his shoulder."Rock, you're doing the right thing.Besides, Orpheus was always so holier-than-thou anyway.It'll be good to take care of that, right?"

Rock glared witheringly at his sister."That wasn't funny.There's nothing funny about any of this."

Hurt, Roll pulled back."I'm trying," she said stiffly."It's not easy for any of us, especially you and me.I'm nearly halfway done with my armor now, and I have just as much to look forward to, you know.It doesn't do anybody any good to have you moping around and being depressed all the time!"

Rock threw his helmet to the floor and clenched his fist.

"I know!" he exploded."I'm supposed to be the big hero who puts on a brave face while I fall apart inside, right?!I'm supposed to just ignore the fact that I'm _killing my friends!I'm supposed to go on with a smile on my face and say 'It's easy, folks!Be like Rockman and eat your whole wheat bread every day!'If Dr. Light didn't want this kind of reaction from me, he should've made me without emotions!"_

Roll bit her lip and looked down at Rock's fist.

"Rock . . ."

"What?!"Rock looked down at his fists and realized that he'd shifted both of them to plamsa-buster configuration unwittingly.

With great chagrin, he let his arms go limp and shifted his hands back into human hands.Without looking up, he spoke, quietly.

"I'm sorry.I don't know what's gotten into me . . .Maybe I'm having a breakdown like Blues."

"Don't say that," Roll said, a little too sharply.After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, she added, "Come on.Let's get you into the enhancement chamber and upgrade your plasma buster."

Rock nodded wearily.

As they walked across the room, Rock heard Roll make a soft noise of distress.

"What is it?"

Roll shrugged."I guess I'm losing it.Maybe I should recharge more often.It's just that the log for the enhancement chamber says that it's been used twice, and we've only ever used it once."

Rock looked up in alarm.

"You're right.What the hell . . . ?"

"Probably just a malfunction," Roll answered as Rock took a step into the chamber.Then she flipped the switch.

Once again, Rock was enveloped in pain, but this time, it didn't seem nearly as intense.Of course, it was localized to only his plasma busters, but it also just didn't seem like much after the fight with Cutman and Gutsman.

He stepped from the chamber and took a look at himself.Everything was the same, with the exception of his plasma buster.Now, instead of being merely a blue egg shape with a gold meter on it, it had a gold meter on one side and a red meter on the other.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A matter-synthesis module," Roll answered."Dr. Light and I had an idea that if you can replicate some of the attacks of the Robot Masters, then maybe it'll be easier to defeat the remaining ones."

Rock nodded."Good idea.How does it work?"

"Well," Roll answered, "we've only actually completed two of the weapons.It was very difficult to integrate the abilities of only one Robot Master into your weapon chip, and we were thinking that if you could take the control chips of the remaining Robot Masters, we could use those as a model for the version you'd use.We still have all the work on my armor to do, you know."

"Got it.So what can I do?"Rock looked at his plasma buster with some apprehension.

"You've got the Rolling Cutter and enhanced muscle power," Roll said.Maybe you didn't notice, but your hydraulics and joints should be noticeably enhanced now.Dr. Light did all he could to replicate the strength of a Heracles model, and the Rolling Cutter works on a matter-synthesis principle."

"You still haven't told me how it works," Rock noted.

"I was getting to that.If you access your main program, you should find a subdirectory called 'Weapons.'Look in that for the 'Rolling Cutter' option and choose it."

Rock followed her directions.Of course, it was all virtual--he didn't really see any of the things Roll had said, but he could compute them instantly with his neural net.

"Oh . . . oh, my."Roll began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Rock demanded.Then he saw.

The color-shift chip had originally been installed by Dr. Light in Rock's helmet as a means of possibly camouflaging himself later on, when Dr. Light had the time to work on the design.It seemed now that the aged robotechnician had found a more . . . humorous application for the chip.

Rock was silver and grey from his head to his toes.Everything that had been pale blue now glittered a pale silver, and everything that had once been darker blue was now a deep grey.

"Very funny," Rock snapped.Wasn't Dr. Light carrying this superhero thing a little too far?It was enough that Rock was being hounded by the media already, but now every time he chose to use a new weapon, his "costume" would change to fit the occasion.

"Well," Roll said, stifling a giggle, "all you need now is a cape and a big 'R' emblazoned on your chest.I'm sure Dr. Light could arrange that."

Rock switched back to his normal plasma buster, and with it his normal colors."Don't you dare," he half-teased, allowing himself a small grin."Now get out of here.I'm going to recharge before I go to the Underworld."

*****

As soon as he landed, Rock knew that, unlike the previous two Robot Masters, this one expected trouble.For one thing, the plateau he had landed on was swarming with multidirectional surface-scanning U.S. Army 'bots.

It would only be a matter of seconds before he was discovered, Rock calculated, whether he destroyed the robots or not.

Deciding it was better to keep Orpheus as blind as he possibly could, Rock raised his arm-cannon . . .

_But they haven't done anything to me._

Rock cursed himself for allowing the thought to creep in.Still, after downloading the virus that was formed of his hatred and anger into Gutsman's computer, Rock had developed a feeling of guilt towards destroying a robot--even an enemy robot--if there was no immediate cause.

"Too late now," he muttered.Several meters in front of him, higher on the stair-step form of the frozen plateau, was a humanoid robot, painted a pale green.It was familiar to Rock, but he didn't bother trying to remember the name of it; he had more important things to do.

Dodging behind the frozen form of a palm treeborg, Rock watched the military spybot walk past him.

So far, so good.As long as he kept hiding behind the trees that dotted the lower portion of this plateau, he wouldn't have any trouble hiding himself from the less sophisticated spy robots that roved the area.

As he stepped out from behind the tree, an alarm blared on a frequency that Rock knew a human being wouldn't be able to hear.Ultrasonic and highly noticeable to Rock's aural sensors, the alarm was a sure sign that he'd been seen.

Sure enough, he came face-to-face with another military spybot.

Another alarm, this one loud and quite within the rang of human hearing, blared as Rock dropped and blasted the spybot's legs out from under it.

Rolling to the side and dodging the falling debris, Rock was alarmed to notice that only the lower half had fallen; the upper half of the robot still hovered in midair, its razor-taloned hands sweeping down at Rock.

Damn.That was why these had looked familiar; they were the special kind of spybot--called the Hydra because of its ability to function even when its "head" was separated from its lower body.Rock had seen the designs and schematics for this type of robot while working in the factory in Gladstonbury, and knew that the only way to permanently disable one was to destroy the head unit.

As the upper portion of the Hydra swooped down, Rock released a plasma blast and rolled out of the way, quickly regaining his feet and leaping up onto the next level of the frozen plateau.As soon as he had landed on the next step, he was confronted with another Hydra.

Having less time to act, Rock fired quickly at the head, but not before the robot had taken a quick swipe at his stomach, leaving a thin opening and a trail of circulatory fluids behind.Rock grimaced and leaped up to the next level, hoping to outdistance the many spybots which had begun to pass the alarm that there was an intruder.

At the top of the plateau, Rock beheld the grand vista of New Shirewick below him.

Sterile and white with snow and ice, New Shirewick was the city that had grown up around the thriving industry that was the World Water Purification Plant.Although Rock suspected that no living human resided there now, it had once been an active center.

That was back the way Rock had just come.Directly in front of him was a small lake, which was heated from the bottom.Although the top layer was thin ice, the water lower was still liquid, because of the heating system.This had once been a reservoir for those who had lived down in new Shirewick; the waster was kept in liquid form and pumped though specially heated, insulated and reinforced pipes to the city below, after filtering and purifying.

Little use the people would have for it now, Rock reflected grimly.

He thought he detected motion at the bottom of the lake, about five yards below, but the ice and reflection of the pale, green-hazed sun made it difficult to tell.

Noise behind him alerted him to the presence of more robots.Rather than fight and draw more attention to himself, Rock opted to leap into the lake.Of course, he wouldn't be able to swim; he was too heavy for that.Still, it would provide some cover from the sensory devices above.

With a quick check to make sure that the hole from the Hydra's attack had sealed itself up, Rock plunged into the near-freezing water.

The shock would have killed a human being.

Although it was actually warmer underwater than it had been up above, the intense cold still pressed around Rock on every side.At just above freezing, the water was thick and turgid, especially for Rock, who had not been designed with underwater travel in mind.

As he took his first step underwater, Rock's optical feedback indicated that he was not alone.Between a couple of cracks in the ice, there were more multidirectional sensor 'bots, scanning for intruders.

Yes, Rock decided, _somebody had definitely been expected._

Turbulence in the water altered Rock to a quickly approaching enemy.Several meters in front of him but approaching rapidly was a propellor-driven missile.Rock almost laughed; it had been painted as a penguin.

Still, no matter how comical its appearance, it was still a missle, and it would still damage Rock if it exploded in his vicinity.

Taking careful aim, Rock fired a burst of concentrated plasma.

Underwater, the plasma was far more visible.Carrying with it its own bubble of air, the plasma left a trail of bubbles and boiling water behind it.It hit the missile head-on, exploding it in a spherical orb of golden fire that was extinguished so quickly, it left only a ghost of light behind in the water.

Well, this was going well.Rock had been here for almost five minutes, and he had only been damaged once by an enemy robot.This was a good sign.

_Don't get too cocky, he warned himself.This was still a dangerous and possibly suicidal mission; no Robot Master under Dr. Wily's control was to be scoffed at._

Making his way through the underwater area posed little difficulty for Rock.As long as he kept a sharp eye out for any of the penguin-missiles and the liberally scattered multidirection sensor 'bots, he encountered little resistance.

After a few encounters with more missile 'bots, Rock's thermal sensors indicated a slight increase in the water temperature.For a moment, Rock wondered if he had been detected, but then realized that the temperature increase was his own doing; superheated plasma would certainly warm the water up!

Wary of altering any other sensor probes to his presence, Rock switched to the newly acquired Rolling Cutter. Although he had no idea how effective the replicated lumber-cutting blade would be under water, he was sure that it would attract less attention than several unaccountable temperature increases in the water.

Here was a test subject; on a tier before him, a place where Rock would need to climb in order to get back out of the water, was a sensor probe, scooting back and forth and sending radio signals.

Accessing the virtual Weapons subdirectory, he powered up his plasma buster.Instead of watching his left hand metamorphisize into a now-familiar egg shape, Rock observed five small whirlpools forming at the tips of his fingers--the matter synthesis unit drawing matter so that it could replicate a blade.

Within a handful of microseconds, Rock held a duplicate of Achilles' Rolling Cutter.

Momentary sorrow swept over Rock.There must have been another way to neutralize Achilles without destroying him utterly.If only . . .

Rock batted the thoughts away.Either he was getting better at handling these negative emotions, or his circuits were getting worn down.Either way, he had no time for maudlin reminiscence; Orpheus had seized the world's last source of clean water, and there was no telling what he would do if Rock didn't stop him.

Dimly wondering of Roll had tested the Rolling Cutter before, Rock calculated the trajectory needed to hit the sensor probe with the Rolling Cutter, took aim, and hurled the pair of circular scissors-blades towards the unwitting robot.

The robot's armor had been designed to withstand laser beams and sudden bursts of plasma on the battlefield (it was an Army 'bot, after all).It had not, however, been designed to withstand several hundred pounds of pressure between two diamond-hard, razor-edged Rolling Cutter blades.

Rock's weapon seemed to pass directly through the sensor 'bot, leaving only a thin white line on the exterior armor as it cut through all the internal circuitry.

Then, as if in slow motion, the two halves of the robot slid apart from one another, shooting sparks into the water and leaving bubbles where the liquid boiled from the intense heat of the electrical discharge.

"Damn," Rock spat.That would draw attention fairly quickly.

Several quick leaps onto the tiers that led to the water level brought Rock safely out of the nearly-frozen liquid and back onto dry, if slippery land.

As he landed, Rock slipped and fell in an undignified heap on his rear, cursing.So much for maintaining that invincible superhero image.Half-grinning in self-mockery, Rock pulled himself to his feet and took a few slow, careful steps forward.Despite the fact that he moved with care and precision, even the negligible amount of momentum generated by that motion was enough to carry him forward several inches after he had stopped walking.

This would be interesting.

Taking a deep breath to make sure that his internal fusion reactor was fully charged, Rock surveyed the area once again.Now that he had safely navigated his way through the reservoir, Rock stood before a large wall of ice and rock, thrust up in primordial days from the earth by an earthquake long forgotten. Beyond that, there was no telling what lay.However, Rock calculated that if the fault line followed normal behavior, there would be a large chasm on the other side . . .

Which brought him to a more immediate problem; several meters ahead of him, as wide across as several tanker trucks, a large hole gaped.It would be easy enough to walk around it, but Rock suspected that it had once been a cargo-unloading area for the Purification Plant.If so, it would probably have a ladder or moving platform or elevator that would convey him safely to the bottom of the chasm from which the Purification Plant drew its water.

Taking several steps forward, Rock failed to compensate for the slick surface of the ice he trod upon and toppled, arms windmilling, into the cool blueness of the hole.

Immediately, he realized that any ladder or lift that had once been here had long since been obliterated by Orpheus' robots.Burn marks stained the stone under the ice, and frayed electrical cables spat sparks into the air as Rock fell, fingers clawing the impossibly smooth surface in a vain attempt to slow his lethally quick descent.

Equations ran in Rock's brain, calculating his chances of survival if he landed on the ground, nearly 50 meters below.Although his calculations provided for the slowing effect of the water that had puddled on the floor below to almost Rock's height, his chances of survival were still bleak.

Logic dictated that any actions of Rock's would be futile, that his end would still be the same.However, Rock's emotion circuits flared to life and produced a sudden, last minute decision out of desperation.

Summoning a Rolling Cutter into existence, Rock jammed the diamond-hard blades into the wall with all the force he could muster and felt himself jerk to a wrenching stop as the blades found purchase and bit deep into the ice and rock that made up the edifice.

Rock took several deep breaths to recharge his system; it had been providing emergency power--robotic adrenaline--in vast excess for the past several seconds, and left him in an exhausted state.

After almost a full minute of hanging from the wall, recharging his systems, Rock took a look around.

About where he hung had once been the ground; he could tell because several meters away stood the last vestiges of the foundations of this part of the center.Below him yawned several meters of empty space that finally terminated in the water-covered floor of what had once been a basement storage facility.Rock could dimly make out a sensor 'bot patrolling the area below.

As he calculated several possibilities, Rock felt a tingling sensation before him.

Air rushed towards a spot a few meters below and to the left of Rock, as if some eldritch force had suddenly conspired to draw the winds towards the center of the room.Through his infrared and ultraviolet vision modes, Rock could detect streams of energy spiraling around the point at which the air seemed to be headed.

Then, with a sound the was halfway in between a gust of wind and a low growl that was almost subsonic for its deep bass quality, a large cube of matter formed in the air and floated in place.

Rock gaped.

His chemical and molecular analysis module tied itself into virtual knots as it attempted to discern the physical structure of the thing.To a large extent, it seemed to be made up of glass and quartzite.Laced through its structure in intricate threads were microscopic strings of titanium-alloyed steel and other substances which Rock's sensors couldn't decipher.

For several seconds, this anomaly hung in mid-air, within jumping distance of the dumbfounded android.Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, but with far less prelude, it disappeared.

Had Rock been human, he would have shaken his head and dismissed at as lack of sleep, stress-induced hallucination or a number of other things.However, he merely worked furiously in his positronic brain to unravel the riddle.

Was it Dr. Wily's creation?Certainly, it had the tell-tale genius mixed with something not quite definable that was the hallmark of the German roboticist's work.Of course, it could also be a government test substance of some sort; since Antarctic settlements were isolated from the rest of the world, they were often used a guinea pigs by other governments to test technological experiments on.

But why would any government create blocks that appeared and disappeared with no particular purpose, and why would they put them smack in the middle of where the foundation for the floor had once lain?

Perhaps it was something of Dr. Light's, sent as an aid to Rock in this time of--

No.If Dr. Light had been able to teleport anything this close to the center, then Rock himself would have already started out his journey that much closer to Orpheus' lair.

Dr. Wily, then?But why?Rock's musing was cut short as his Rolling Cutter began to slip.Solid as its grip was on the ice, it was only replicated matter, and not meant to exist forever in this configuration.

Batting down panic, Rock searched for a way to save himself.The fall from this distance would assuredly not kill him, now that he had stopped himself.However, there was no assurance that he could get out of the walled-in chasm that had once been the basement if he fell.

If only . . .

The block appeared again, in a rush of air and noise.

Wasting no time, Rock leaped to the block and flexed his fingers, their joints made weak by the undue stress forced upon them for the last few minutes.

Rock's internal chronometer told him that the block had only existed for roughly seconds last time; there was no reason to believe it would be longer this time.

Granted a momentary reprieve, Rock cast about quickly for some means to reach the floor-level foundation that still stuck out from the furthest wall.Certainly, a jump from this distance would only result in a glorious fall.

What, then?

His quandary was solved as another block materialized before him, only a few meters away.

Taking a leap without hesitation, Rock heard a nearly imperceptible _whoosh as the block he had been standing on moments before vanished into the air as if it had never existed._

Several meters below him, a dizzying height away, the sensor 'bot scooted around on the floor.Rock idly watched it trace random patterns in the frost-rimed water as he waited for another block to appear.

Sure enough, a deep bass groan accompanied by a rush of air that rose octaves heralded the appearance of another block in the sequence.Rock had already established the blocks' exact timing pattern and had projected a possible course for the strange blocks to follow based upon their already-monitered progress.

Upon his next leap, Rock found that he had miscalculated by several inches, causing him to slip and teeter dangerously on the edge of the block.Barely had he regained his balance before he was forced to make the next jump--this time on to the ruins of the foundation.

Giving quick thanks to Dr. Light for programming him so well, Rock took stock of his position once again.He was stranded on an outcropping of steel beams and mortar, all encased in solid ice, which did nothing to help his footing.

On all four sides, he was surrounded by a lethal drop.Behind him and on both his left and right stretched the pit he had just spanned on the mysterious blocks.Before him was a dark shaft that dropped apparently to the base of the glacier.

_No way to go except forward, Rock decided._

Still equipped to use the Rolling Cutter, Rock summoned another silver slice of steel into his left hand.He paused.Even though it would be foolish to the point of possible fatality to charge both arms at once, he hadn't considered using both for matter synthesis.The strain would be far less on his systems . . .

On sudden impulse, Rock replicated a second Rolling Cutter--this one in his right hand.

No ill effects, so--

Rock lowered himself off the edge of the gaping pit before him and gripped the wall with both Rolling Cutters.

Although his descent wasn't nearly as fast as it would have been ina free fall, Rock still felt the wind of his passage as he sped down, leaving twin sets of double trails on the ice above, looking nothing so much like quartzite scars on the face of the otherwise perfect ice.

When he finally reached the bottom, Rock found himself in much the same situation as before; a huge room--once a possible storage area--with a sensor 'bot at its water-covered floor.At one end of the room was a huge wall, leading up to an exit from the innards of the glacier.Sunlight, although pale and sickly here, seemed a slice of bright unreality after the mottled dimness of the ice caverns.

As Rock had suspected there would be, another set of disappearing blocks spanned the distance from where he stood--on a dais near the bottom of the room--to the exit.The android wondered briefly as he jumped from block to block what their purpose was.Certainly, it seemed that they were intended for the use to which he was putting them.But why would anybody devise such a dangerous system?If it was a tactic to slow down an invading force, what not just deny them any means of passage . . .

. . . unless you wanted them to arrive?

Rock nearly missed his next jump as the revelation hit him like a plasma burst; no human could make the jumps Rock had made.

Orpheus wanted _him to arrive!It was Orpheus' plan to meet __Rock!_

Whether it bespoke arrogance or foolishness on Orpheus' part, Rock couldn't be certain, but it had been the exploration 'droid's plan to defeat Rock from the beginning.

So much for taking the renegade exploration androbot by surprise, Rock mused grimly.

As he landed once again on solid ground, Rock noted with irritation that his situation had not improved.Although he had reached the exit from the ice caverns within the glacier that housed the main part of the World Water Purification Plant, he had nowhere else to go.Before him stretched the massive canyon whose existence he had surmised already.However, his goal lay across the chasm, with no hope of getting there.

Rock could see it plainly using telescopic vision; across the chasm was a short drop which was visible through the semi-transparent wall of ice.From there, Rock thought he could make out a long passageway with some sort of large robot in it.

Swearing in frustration, Rock almost didn't hear the buzz of the motor below him.

With a near jump of surprise, Rock looked down off the edge of the chasm to see a group of transport robots hovering in midair.Their flat tops were usually meant to carry ton-plus loads of equipment across short distances, but Rock was sure that it would hold him for a considerably longer time.

Switching to his plasma buster in the weapons subdirectory, Rock took a leap of faith from the cliff's edge, hoping that none of the transports would move.

They did.

Rock barely caught the edge of the nearest one as it moved away from him, nearly upending the whole thing and hurling the pair of them into the canyon below.As the transport robot's gyroscopic system compensated for the sudden increase in pressure on its left side, Rock had to swing his feet out to avoid having his legs cut off the by the whirling blades of the helicopter-like transport.

The transports had scattered across the canyon now, hovering in seemingly random patterns the length of the canyon from where Rock now stood atop one transport to the gap in the ice that he knew he must reach.

Perhaps Orpheus was controlling them via remote . . .

The thought would have made Rock shiver, had he been human.Of course, he reflected wryly as he prepared to leap to the next transport, if he were human, he'd already be shivering in the Arctic cold.

The journey across the canyon was fairly short and uneventful for Rock, besides the nasty surprise that each of the transports had been modified to include a plasma cannon on each of its four cardinal compass points.That shock had cost Rock several units of operating power.

He reached the long passageway he had seen, and sure enough, it was occupied by a massive, though not unfamiliar robot.Rock had just recently encounter one of the exact same kind--albiet painted a different color.

The LighTech trash compactor 'bot took a massive leap forward, and this time, Rock knew he would have no chance of escape.

He braced himself and fired a blast of white-hot plasma . . .

*****

Iceman stood in half shock.

"Who are you?" he demanded."And what do you think you're doing with that key?"

"This key?"The dark figure at the end of the room whistled a jaunty tune that was apparently tailored to get on one's nerves."I just found it lying around.Want it?"

Iceman took another step forward, somehow unable to distinguish the appearance of the person at the end of the room.

"Listen, human, if you think--"The Antarctic exploration androbot cut himself short as his optical scanners realized the impossible."Y-you're a robot!"

The figure took a step forward, the golden gleam of something long and fluttery flashing in the artificial gloom that surrounded it."I think I'll just take it back to Dr. Wily," the figure said.

"Through the shield?"Iceman laughed."You must be one of Dr. Light's pets--nothing else could be so--"

The robot disappeared in a flash of crimson, teleporting _through the shield that surrounded the city._

Iceman stood in silence for several minutes before loosing invective to the Antarctic wind.

Then Rockman arrived.

*****

A handful of seconds slipped by in silence while the android and the androbot sized one another up.

Iceman was the first to speak.The scorn that had always tempered his voice now seemed terribly amplified to Rock.It was the same as the others; a warped reflection of the androbot he had once known and called friend.

"Nice armor," Iceman snapped."You'll need it."

"Save it," Rock spat."I saw those piles of frozen bodies out there."The memory was too fresh to dismiss; Rock's teeth ground as he thought of the slaughter that must have ensued when Orpheus arrived.There had been children in those piles . . .

"I gave all of the pathetic creatures their equal chance to tell me where the key was," Iceman answered."That's the price of defying Iceman."

"How original," Rock said acerbically."I liked Orpheus better."

"He's dead," Iceman offered."Only I remain.Orpheus never would have had the courage to wipe the planet clean of the filthy, verminous, _organic life that manifests itself like a plague."_

Rock charged his plasma buster."Fancy language won't excuse genocide," he snarled."You must know I killed Gutsman and Cutman.You don't hope to fare any better do you?"The sound of such harsh words, spoken so lightly over such a sore subject made Rock hate himself.

"Weak fools," Iceman said in vituperative disgust."As are you!"

And that was all the warning he gave.Rock found himself ducking, rolling and jumping for his life as massive icicles, no less razor-sharp on their tips for the size, rushed at him with the inhuman speed of a freight train.

Before he was touched, Rock managed to score three hits on Iceman, leaving ugly black scorch marks on the light blue parka that the androbot still wore.However, the exploration androbot-turned-renegade seemed to take no mind of the damage dealt him as he skated back and forth on the ice with sharpened blades affixed to his feet.

When Rock was hit, however, he knew that he could not withstand many more hits like this.The razor-sharp ice tore through bullet-proof armor and laid bare circuits and hydraulics on Rock's arm that bled dark fluid mixed with hissing sparks.

A quick, panic-stricken glance at his energy meter told Rock that he had lost nearly a third of his operating power to his repair-systems with just that single strike.Two more shots from Iceman would overload Rock's systems and cause him to explode.

"You cannot defeat Iceman," Iceman chuckled as he hurled wave after of wave of slashing ice blades."You are weak.Pathetic.I spit on you!"

Rock, through all his dodging and rolling had managed to score only another three hits on Iceman, who showed no sign of fatigue or even damage beyond the dark scars on his parka.The intense cold and the quickly-freezing moisture in the air was beginning to inhibit Rock's movement, and the android knew that a false step could be fatal.

The damn ice that lined the floor wasn't helping any either.

Duck, roll, jump.Duck, roll, jump.Rock was falling into the pattern of it now, and both opponents knew that whoever missed their part in the intricate pattern first would suffer disastrous consequences.

Rock took a slashing icicle square in the chest and screamed aloud for the agony; it hadn't killed him, but the delay might.

Hurling the circulatory-fluid-stained icicle back at its creator, Rock did something no logic could explain; he charged his adversary.

Taken aback for a half second, Iceman had no chance to save himself as Rock tucked, rolled and leaped, landing atop the exploration androbot.

Desperation obvious on his disgustingly human face, Rock suddenly changed colors.Iceman had no time to process this before he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of silver.He dimly had a few microseconds to recognize Cutman's Rolling Cutter and realize his own peril.

_Bastard, Iceman thought in his last seconds, __using our own weapons against us!_

Then, with one viscous swipe, Rockman beheaded his adversary.

Iceman's head described a lazy arc as it flew across the room and landed with a metallic _clank on the floor._

Rock blasted several blasts into the main body of his decapitated adversary as a safeguard against any mishap, then stood and took several deep breaths.

Before the horror of his brutality overwhelmed him, Rock knelt and removed the matter-synthesis chip from Iceman's torso.

Sending a signal to Dr. Light to send in a crew to clean up and get the Plant back into working order again, Rock felt dizzy.His sensors performed a quick sweep to affirm what he had already suspected; with Iceman's death, the shield had dropped.Apparently, its generator had been linked to Iceman via remote.

Rock felt sorrow and self-loathing threaten to debilitate him, and quickly activated his teleport mechanism.

In the corner, a metallic roach watched with robotic fascination as the last swirls of powdered ice upset by Rock's departure settled to the ground and soaked up the black-green circulatory fluids that bled from the stump of the headless body that had once been Iceman.


	8. Ground Zero

"Explosives are the key

_"Explosives are the key.It doesn't matter what kind of fancy 'buster you're armed with or what kind of blade you hold in your hand.Lord Sigma learned that the hard way__.A laser can be reflected.Electricity can be absorbed.Plasma can be deflected. But toss a bomb at one of those highly-touted Hunters, and they'll run like hell itself is following on their heels."_

--Counter-Hunter Serges, prior to the second Irregular Uprising in Neo Tokyo__

**Chapter Seven**

**Ground Zero**

Docman glanced from side to side, hologram-cloak photoreceptors taking in every detail of the small room.Crystalline lenses flicked back and forth like a nervous cat's tail as the top-heavy emulation robot committed every square nanometer of the room to its ROM.

Although its brain still wasn't fully functional yet, Docman had gained a sort of primitive sentience; it was aware of its surroundings, and it was able to make some small decisions of its own based on interaction with its environment.It had come to identify the tall, wild haired human as its father, at least.That was a step in the right direction.

The robot took a few tottering steps forward and stared at the mechanical roach before it.A thermal sensor sweep revealed a much higher body temperature than was normal.A few additional sensor sweeps confirmed to Docman that the roach was actually one of Dr. Wily's robotic spies.

Ingenious in design and easily hidden, the robot roaches had been mass-produced by the millions at Dr. Wily's command, and had been spread across the globe to spy for him.It was because of the tiny cybernetic insects that Dr. Wily knew of James Walken's plan to betray him.

And it was through the eyes of one his many spies that Dr. Wily had--while monitoring Docman's emulation of Blues--happened to witness the destruction of Iceman.As soon as Docman had returned, the wild-haired robotechnician had flown into a fit of screaming rage.Docman didn't understand; he had been ordered to speak certain words and steal the Plant's operation key.

Dr. Wily had told Docman that Iceman would certainly have taken control of the Purification Plant and destroyed it before schedule if the key were not removed from the plant with alacrity.So, as the German doctor's loyal servant, Docman had left disguised as a robot called Blues to steal the key away, and to plant a certain surprise for Rockman in Iceman's systems.

Why, then, was Dr. Wily angry?

Docman had held up the key proudly; he knew it would bring his master great joy.Like a puppy, Docman was eager to please his master and receive praise.It was his purpose in existence.

It had been a terrible shock to the emulation robot when Dr. Wily had slapped the key out of Docman's hands.All of the quasi-developed robot's childish glee at a job well done had dissolved under the German roboticist's scathing, vituperative rage.Docman had eventually hidden under a table to avoid another outbreak of insults and hurled tools by his master.

Finally, Dr. Wily had fallen asleep in the corner, weeping about the death of Iceman.

Docman, not sure what to do, had crawled out from under the table and sat in sentinel vigilance, guarding his "father."And now he had discovered the roach.

Docman's half-formed positronic brain relayed a few electronic signals, and the robot got an idea.It would make Dr. Wily happy if he woke up and found that Docman had destroyed the organism called James Walken.Docman did not know why his master hated the organism so much, but Docman's place was not to question.

A small smile forming on humanoid lips, Docman walked slowly to a security monitor in the corner of the room.It was one of hundreds just like it that displayed what was seen by the robot roaches within Skull Castle.Trying with all its might to understand the dials and switches which adorned the monitor, Docman began the laborious process of searching for James Walken . . .

*****

"Jimmy!"

Jimmy Walken giggled as his father leaped out of the bush and caught the young boy by his armpits, lifting him up and swinging him around in a circle.

"You cheated!" Jimmy protested as his father set him down."I said no hiding in the trees!"

"This is a bush," George Walken pointed out."Anyway, my boy, it's called 'Hide and Seek,' not 'Hide Anywhere Except in the Flora and Seek.'"

Jimmy frowned."I still think it's cheating. You're way bigger than me.You should have to walk on your knees to chase me.That'd make it fair."

George Walken opened his mouth as if to answer, but cocked his head slightly instead.

Jimmy's hairs stood on end.With the big war overseas, everybody here at home was really tense.It scared Jimmy to see his dad with such an alarmed look on his face--especially after the way he had acted last night.

Although George Walken hadn't spoken to Jimmy about it, the child had heard on the news last night that America had joined the war, and some big dictator in Europe was really angry about it.There had been threats, but Jimmy hadn't heard them.

"What is it, dad?"Jimmy pulled on his father's pant leg.It was covered with dirt and smelled of the juniper bush George Walken had just been hiding in."Dad?"

George Walken "shushed" his son and stained to hear a far-away something.

To a six-year-old boy like Jimmy, such treatment was unacceptable.

"Dad!" he snapped, his face darkening with a scowl."Dad!What is it?"

Jimmy flinched as his father's molten glare turned on him."Jimmy, I'm trying to--"

His words cut off in mid-sentence.Jimmy's heart raced as his father's eyes grew larger and rounder than Jimmy had ever seen them.

"Jimmy, I want you to climb that tree over there and don't come down until I say to."His father's voice was a harsh whisper.

"But--"

"Do it!"George Walken nearly threw his son into the large oak nearby."Get up there, boy!And stay there until I tell you it's all right!Do you understand?"

The deadly seriousness with which George Walken spoke would tolerate no argument, and Jimmy knew it.There was something else in his father's voice, though, that made Jimmy _want to scramble up the tree and hide like a frightened squirrel._

No sooner had he reached the top of the tree did Jimmy see them.There were only ten of them, but that was enough to scare the boy out of his wits.

They were silver-plated and disc-shaped, with blue lights flashing around the rims of their bodies.Easily fifteen feet across, the disc-shaped robots glided along the ground without a sound.

The park was in the middle of the city, and Jimmy could easily see his house a few blocks away from his vantage point high in the tree.There were more of the silver disc-shaped robots at his house, he could see.

Jimmy watched in horrified fascination as the robots approached his father.

"Robots are evil, Jimmy," his father had told him."They're a sin against God.The good Lord didn't intend for the sons of Adam mock Him."

"I don't understand, daddy," Jimmy had said."Mrs. Kerzon says that robots are just metal and plastic, and that they can't think!"

"They _can think, Jimmy," his father had snapped emphatically."But they don't have a soul.And that's the worst sin of all."_

Jimmy shrugged.His father was a Baptist minister, and Jimmy supposed that his daddy knew a lot more about what God liked and what he didn't than Jimmy ever would.

Young Jimmy was torn from his reverie as one of the robots spoke.

"George Walken," it said in a terrible, icy voice."Age: 34.You are to come with us."

George Walken stood defiant before the robots, his chin jutting out."I will not."

"Resisting arrest is a crime, Mr. Walken," the foremost robot said.

Jimmy's heart raced.Arrest?His daddy?

"For what reasons am I to be put under arrest?"

With mechanical alacrity, the robot began to list charges."Illegal arms sales to the New Frankish Empire.Sabotage of government property.Resistin--"

"How did you find me?"George Walken's harsh whisper was not heard by his son.

"DNA match, Mr. Walken," said a second robot as the first continued to list off charges."The blood you left behind when you escaped arrest last time."The robot extended a pair of arms, holding handcuffs."Come, Mr. Walken.Your days if weapons smuggling are over."

". . . and treason," the first robot finished.

Jimmy frowned.What was the robot talking about?His daddy was a minister!Jimmy didn't know what "smuggling" or "treason" meant, but neither sounded like something that a minister would do.

"You'll have to kill me," said George Walken.

Jimmy's face turned ashen.

The Laws of Robotics had been created by the genius Isaac Asimov decades ago.However, the international talks to instill the Three Laws in each robot manufactured had broken down when the war broke out.It was fully possible that these robots might kill Jimmy's father.

"Execution is scheduled for next week," the robot droned."Lethal injection, as per the laws of--"

The robot exploded in brilliant white flame.Jimmy had never even seen his father draw the laser pistol from his jacket pocket.

Completely emotionless, the second robot began to speak."You are only making it worse," it said."If you try that again, Mr. Walken, we shall be forced to--"

The second robot exploded, too.Jimmy was nearly blinded by the flash.Waves of heat rolled over him up in his tree.Bits of steel and glass rained down, landing in his hair and cutting his arms.Jimmy bit his lip to keep quiet.These robots scared him more than anything else in the world.

Without any warning, the third robot dropped to the ground.The smooth top of its shell split and a long, thin silver proboscis slid out of its electric innards.Jimmy's eyes were glued open in terror when the invisible laser blasted forth with a force that could be felt up in the tree.

There was little transition.One moment, George Walken was alive.

The next, the was a headless body standing where Jimmy's father had been.Shards of bone lay carelessly strewn about the park, and deep crimson blood was already beginning to pool around the body.

Slowly, pitifully, the body crumpled to the ground without a sound.

The robots turned and departed, a silver procession of mechanical turtles.

Jimmy screamed.

*****

James Walken awoke with a start.

It had been decades since his father's death.Although George Walken had been posthumously declared guilty of the crime of treason against the United States of America, James Walken had never believed that his own father would be a traitor.

That left one explanation; it had been an error.Somewhere, a robot in charge of the DNA match of the man who had been smuggling weapons to the New Frankish Empire had made an error, which resulted in the unjust death of Jimmy's father.

That had to be it.James Walken refused to believe any other explanation.

And so James Walken had founded the Human Supremacy League to destroy all robots, that nobody else should suffer such injustice.Robots had destroyed James Walken's life; he would not permit them to do so to others.

That the HSL was now allied with Dr. Wily and his army of unholy creations was of little concern to James Walken.When the world had been shown what a plague robots could be, then they would jointhe HSL in destroying both Wily and his robots.

James Walken rubbed the sleep from his eyes.There had been something important to do today . . .

Rock!That was it!

The devil-spawn who pretended to be human would die today.James Walken's lip curled with disgust that such a monstrosity should be allowed to exist.Dr. Light would pay for that.George Walken's words echoed through James' mind: _"They can think, Jimmy.But they don't have a soul.And that's the worst sin of all."_

Sin.Unholy.Demonic.

James Walken had found long ago that such words aroused anger and indignation in people very easily.Faith was a valuable weapon to James Walken.He had duped most of the HSL into believing that he was some sort of prophet, and that it was God's will that all robots be destroyed.

The door cracked, and a knife-blade of light fell across James Walken's face.

"Sir?"

Walken recognized the voice."Yes?What is it, Kelly?"

The young woman walked into his room hesitantly."Sir, you aked me to wake you at 5:00.It's that time now."

"Thank you, Kelly."James Walken waved a dismissive hand."You may go, now."

Kelly, a young Australian woman of about 25 years, shifted uncomfortably."There's more, sir.Dr. Wily sent for you, but I told him that you weren't to be disturbed."She swallowed hard."He was really angry, but he said just to send you as soon as you woke up."

Walken's eyes narrowed.Dr. Wily was becoming a genuine nuisance."Thanks, Kelly.I'll go see him."

Kelly visibly relaxed.It was obvious that she disliked being caught between two powerful men as a courier.As she turned and left, the door closed behind her, plunging the room into darkness again.

James Walken stood and dressed unhurriedly in the dark. "So, it's 'as soon as I wake up' is it?We'll see what the arrogant old bastard has to say when he's dangling at the end of a rope!"

The leader of the HSL left the room angrily.

Behind him, a robotic roach twitched its antennae, and in the monitoring room, Docman smiled with the lips of a German roboticist.The plan was working perfectly so far . . .

*****

When Rock arrived in Tokyo, Dr. Light merely shook his head sadly.

Indicating the massive hole in Rock's chest and the near-dismemberment of his arm, Roll raised a questioning eyebrow."Do I want to know?"

"No," Rock snapped."Nice to know that you kept the wolves away this time," he said acerbically as he noticed the lack of reporters.

"Not really," Roll countered."We just told them that you'd be back in two hours.We got your message from the South Pole."

Rock breathed out in relief--an amazingly human gesture that he no longer even thought about."Good.Is there a team there yet?"

For answer, Roll smiled."The world's main water source is functional again."

Dr. Light put a hand on Rock's shoulder."You've been injured.Badly."

"Yes."Rock couldn't think of any other reply to the obvious observation.

"Let's get you fixed up," Dr. Light said."Did you get the matter-synthesis chip?"

Rock held up the chip between his index and middle fingers.

"Good."Dr. Light smiled."You can sleep and we'll fix you up and install the chip."

Rock nodded gratefully.

"By the way," Roll said as Rock turned to leave for the repairs room."We received a televid call from a guy called Snap.He wanted to talk to you, but we said you were out defending justice, liberty, etc...Do you know him, or is it another reporter?"

Rock smiled genuinely."Snap!I met him in Sydney and saved him and his two daughters.I gave him instructions to get away from Sydney as fast as he could.I'm glad to know he made it out alive."

"More than that," Roll interjected."He's in Tokyo."

Rock laughed, for no particular reason at all.Then he dropped the floor.His heating circuits had been working overtime, and had now cut out.Rock felt his body temperature drop rapidly.As a safeguard, his automatic systems gave electrical jolts to his steel musculature, in order to generate some friction-heat.

To all appearances, Rock was shivering.

"I think," he chattered, "I think that Iceman hurt me worse than I detected."

*****

Juan Iago was not happy with this assignment.

He believed fervently in the HSL's cause, but this still didn't feel right to him.Despite what he had told James Walken, Juan didn't feel confident of any sort of victory against Rockman.After all, the robot had single-handedly destroyed three powerful Robot Masters.What use would lasers and pistols be against a foe that strong?

Running his fingers through his black hair--a nervous gesture of his--Juan scanned his team.There were twenty top men assigned to this task along with Juan.Each was a weapons expert and highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

A lot of good that last part would do them.Juan snorted in disgust.A robot like Rockman was probably equipped with muscles of steel cable and titanium.No matter how strong a human was, Juan knew it was futile to fight against such power.

No.

He had to think positively.Taking a deep breath, he mentally recited the League's "motto," if that was what it could be called._Robots are inferior to us.They are lower than humans in every way, and need to be obliterated from the face of this world because they are Satan's creatures._

Juan believed almost all of that.

He had been raised in a religious family, and felt that the ideals of the League were admirable.After all, robots could not be allowed to dominate the world.Sloth was a sin, and robots encouraged sloth in their human owners.Juan had always been on the lookout for ways to thwart the devil in his machinations, and this was no exception to the tall Brazilian.

Juan was good at what he did, and he knew it.Even before the HSL had been founded, he had been an expert and blowing things up.Now, however, instead of demolishing abandoned buildings, he was destroying the factories in which the unholy robots were created.

That he killed humans in the attack didn't trouble Juan's conscience at all.If the people were merely victims of circumstance, and had been forced by hard living to work in such a place, then their souls would go to Heaven where they belonged.If the people had chosen to work there of their own will . . . Juan believed that they would go where they deserved as well.

With grim determination, Juan looked over his team again.Finally, setting his jaw firmly, he spoke."Well, gentlemen," he said authoritatively."God's will be done.Let's go fry that bastard."

His order was met by cheers from the gathered members of the Human Supremacy League.

*****

The black hooded figure held a large axe.

The crowd below cheered with bloodthirsty enthusiasm.

Rock watched in horrified silence, unable to move.He could see each face in the mass of human flesh assembled in the city square below his vantage point.Some face he recognized.Snap was there.So were his daughters.After a small amount of searching, Rock spotted Roll, Dr. Light, and several workers from the LighTech robot factory in Gladstonbury.Off to the far right, Rock even saw Akira Yamatsu--the worker from the LighTech factory in Tokyo whose eyes were mismatched in size.

All of them cheered.

The black hooded figure shifted on the podium in the middle of the square, leaning on his axe.

Rock held his breath as the sea of humans below parted to make way for a trio of figures.The one in the middle was hunched over and wearing a something grey and filthy.On either side of it was a security guard: tall, muscular and dressed in the dark blue armor and uniform of the Tokyo police.

The cheering increased in volume and intensity as the trio drew nearer to the podium on which the black hooded figure stood, waiting.

As the the three came to stop at the podium, Rock noticed the wooden block in the center of the podium.A small hollow had been meaningfully carved out on one edge.Rock had always wondered what it felt like to be nauseated.Now he was fairly sure that he knew.

The two security guards threw the hunched figure down on the podium.

Rock knew who it was before the eyes turned up in pathetic appeal to the crowds.

Dr. William Albert Wily knelt on the stage in the center of the crowd, his eyes beseeching forgiveness.Beside him, the executioner waiting with menacing stillness, the large axe gripped meaningfully in his hands.

Wily's eyes caught Rock's and held them as he was forced roughly down.His neck was lain across the chopping block, and his eyes filled with tears as he stared at Rock, pleading.

"No!" Rock shouted, as the executioner lifted his axe high."No!Don't do it!"

Either unable to hear Rock over the clamor of the massive audience to the public execution or heedless of the cry, the executioner swung the axe down in a cruel, merciless arc.

Utter silence descended on the crowd.

Rock winced as a dull, wet _thunk rang out across the square._

Part of him wanted to rejoice that Wily's threat was abated.Another part was disgusted at the waste of human life and sorry for the pain Dr. Wily had suffered.Even now, the dead eyes stared at Rock, as if not quite able to believe what had just occurred.

Dr. Wily's head, in slow motion, fell to the dusty floor of the raised stage.Blood flowed from the neck stump, and the body slumped over.Rock bit his tongue as the head rolled like a ball into the executioner's foot and remained there, soaking in a puddle of thick blood.

If Rock had possessed a physical heart, it would have stopped.

The executioner removed his hood and looked directly at Rock.

It was his own face.Exactly.

And the crowd erupted into cheers.

"Hurrah!Long live Rockman!"

Rock screamed as his doppelganger on the stage graciously bowed and laughed . . .

. . . and he was suddenly sitting up on the operating table.

Dr. Light was shaking his robotic "son" by the shoulders.

Rock put a hand to his head.By the reverberations of sound in the room, Rock knew that he had been screaming in reality, and not just in his dream.

"What's happened!Rock, speak to me!"Dr. Light looked with genuine concern into Rock's eyes."In the name of God, tell me why you just did that!"

The raven-haired, lapis-eyed android shakily removed his hand from his forehead.

"I don't know," he answered."I was having a nightmare--"

"A what?!"Dr. Light's and Roll's exclamation of surprise was simultaneous.

"Nightmare," Rock snapped."You know: a bad dream!"

Dr. Light shook his head."Amazing," he breathed.

Roll looked envious."I've never had a dream."

Rock blinked."Really?I have them all the time, now. Ever since . . ." he trailed off."Ever since I destroyed Achilles," he finished.

"Nightmare, you say?" Dr. Light asked."Not just a replay of your memories?"

With a shudder, Rock said, "Not unless a duplicate of me beheaded Dr. Wily in front of a screaming mob and I just don't remember."

Roll's eyes widened."That's some dream.I'm not sure whether to be jealous or sorry for you."

"I wouldn't be jealous," Rock said darkly.

Dr. Light coughed uncomfortably."Yes, well . . . we'll have to look further into this.This is most interesting . . ."

"Is it one of the signs of madness?" Rock asked suddenly.

Dr. Light started guitltilty."What?"

"When Blues went mad," Rock asked."did he start having dreams?I'm afraid I might be having a neural breakdown.Maybe all this stress on my circuits--"

"No."Dr. Light shook his head emphatically."I've been keeping track of your mental state through your helmet, and you're doing just fine."

"You didn't answer my question."Rock folded his arms.

Dr. Light shrugged."We were never sure.While he recharged . . . "slept" . . . he sometimes would speak softly as if he were talking to another person.Whenever I asked him, though, he just whistled."

"I see."Rock's voice was flat.He took a deep breath."Well, what did you do to me?"

Roll chimed in."Well, you got the Ice Slasher.It's a modified version of Iceman's weapon.We went over the visual records of your battle with him, and it looks like this thing will pack quite a wallop.It'll be another option in your weapons submenu."

Rock nodded."Anything else?"

"Not really.It's only been a couple hours, and it took most of that time just to fix up the damage that the bastard did to you."Roll fidgeted."I'm really sorry for what you have to go through.I hadn't watched any of the visual records of your fights before.It's . . ."

"Horrible."Rock finished."I don't know what human sickness feels like, but I think I feel sick every time I know that I've destroyed one of my friends, and that it's not over yet.I hope it will feel different once Wily's power is broken and I don't have to fight anymore."

Roll nodded fiercely."Yeah. Me too."

Dr. Light cleared his throat."There's one more thing."

The sound of the aged roboticist's voice made Rock's head turn immediately."What?"

"The second shot Iceman hit you with.It was different from the first, wasn't it?More painful."

"Yes," answered Rock."Why?"

"I have reason to believe that there was something encoded within the molecular structure of the icicle.Something bad.I don't know what just yet, but there was some sort of energy signature left behind in your systems for a few minutes afterwards.I don't know if it's serious or just a random side effect of the Ice Slasher.I want you to keep an eye on it, though."Dr. Light gestured lamely with his left hand."That's all."

"I understand," Rock answered.He hung his head."I'm still so tired."

"Let your systems recharge some more," Roll urged."Go to your room and sleep."

"What about the reporters?"Rock's acidic inquiry was directed at Dr. Light.

"I'll handle them," the roboticist said."Just get some rest.You're halfway done, but there are still three more key areas that need to be liberated, which probably means three more Robot Masters to destroy."

Rock nodded gratefully and left for his room.However, when he arrived, he did not go to sleep immediately.He envied Roll her dreamless sleep, and cursed that fate should place him in such a position.

_For justice, Rock told himself before going to sleep._

Mercifully, he did not dream.

*****

"Well?"James Walken stood before a groggy Dr. Wily."Why did you send for me at this hour?"

Dr. Wily frowned."What are you talking about?I just woke up ten minutes ago."

James Walken struggled to keep control of his temper.The deterioration of the man's mental state was pathetic."My assistant received a video message from you stating that you wanted to see me right way."

Dr. Wily opened his mouth to protest."I never--"He stopped.Understanding dawned on his face."Oh.All right, then.I see."

_Whatever the hell that__ means, James Walken thought to himself._

"So, what was it that was so important?" Walken demanded.

Wily frowned."Don't use that tone of voice with me, James.You might think I'm mad, but I still have power, and that's all that counts.Oh, don't look so surprised; I have spybots all over this castle. Did you think that any move you made wasn't being watched?"

"I see."Walken's face was a mask."And what do you intend to do?"

"Nothing, at the moment," Dr. Wily answered."But know this; that expedition you sent out to destroy Rockman is a wasted effort."

Walken's jaw tightened."They will succeed."

"You're impossibly stupid."Dr. Wily waved a hand in dismissal of Walken's statement."I meant that Rockman will be dead before your men can reach him."

The leader of the Human Supremacy League smirked. "Three of your highly-touted generals failed to kill that pretender-to-humanity.I think you will fail to destroy him with the other three."

Dr. Wily, rather than launching himself at the other man as Walken might have expected, laughed.It was a deep laugh that rose in timbre and intensity until it was shrill, piercing siren that hurt Walken's ears.

And suddenly Wily stopped and glared lasers at Walken."You idiot.Don't you think I know that?I made safeguards against it.You may say I'm mad, but I'm not stupid.I sent Docman to New Shirewick just before Iceman was destroyed.Iceman's matter-synthesis module, though he didn't know it, was slightly modified by an undetectable beam from Docman."

Walken was genuinely impressed and interested."Go on."

"When he fired his special weapon, the ice would constructed in such a way that it's molecular structure would be able to carry a certain energy signal into Rockman's systems."

"A virus," Walken guessed.

"A very potent one," Wily agreed."It will render all of his systems useless within seventy-two hours."

"But Dr. Light will discover it and erase it," Walken objected.

A snake-like grin crept across Dr. Wily's weathered features."I think not.The virus is bonded to Rockman's primary module.Specifically, it's bonded to the Three Rules of Robotics, a section of Rock's brain that Tom would ever think to tamper with."

"And there's no way that Rockman can shake this virus?"Walken felt hope creeping into his heart.

Dr. Wily snorted."None.I bonded it to the Second Law: 'A robot must protect its own existence.'If--by some error in Tom's hard-coded progamming--he fails to protect his own existence to the extent that the Second Law can be considered broken, then he will inevitably die anyway, and breaking the Second Law is the only way to dissolve the virus's program."

James Walken smiled."You devious son of a bitch."

Dr. Wily clapped him on the back."I'm sorry you were disturbed in the night."

Walken made no answer, but left the lab.Dr. Wily's expression suddenly turned icy cold as the lab's doors closed behind the leader of the HSL."And we'll see who shall dangle at the end of the rope when this is over," he snapped.Then he turned to the back of the lab, where Docman stood.

"What have you been up to?" he demanded.

*****

Chengdu, New China had never been scenic.

During the Third World War, the entire city had been converted into a sort of giant munitions factory for China, which had been allied with the New Frankish Empire.Because Chengdu sat at the base of a large mountain range and directly over several large veins of iron in the Earth's crust, a mining industry had been strong there ever since the end of the Third World War.

It was no surprise to anybody who paid attention to that sort of thing when Chengdu had been chosen for the location of the Global Mining Industry Complex, dominated by a large central tower.

Rock had expected that if Wily had placed a guard on Nokaneng, he would be doubly sure to place at least one Robot Master in charge of Chengdu, so that had been the next place he'd come.

At first, he didn't see any real difference.The sky was still a pale blue; it seemed to have been partially bleached of its color by the poisonous chemicals spit into the air by the hundreds of industrial plants in the city.Even treeborgs had a hard time surviving here.The only ones Rock could see were large, cylindrical ones plated with iron almost entirely.There were no leaves to be seen; only large, rusted iron orbs atop the huge trunks.

Rock shook his head.Millions of workers had once lived here, and now it was deserted.Rock hoped that most of them had escaped before they were killed, but he knew that it was unlikely.

He had teleported down fairly close to the Global Mining Tower, and decided that it was as good a place as any to begin his search for the rogue Robot Master.None of the previous three had been difficult to find, though getting to their lairs had been a challenge.

Squinting his eyes to avoid momentary optical overload from the glare of the sun, Rock scanned the area.This area had been in Dr. Wily's control for more than a week, so the android surmised that security would be even tighter here than in Iceman's demesne.Sure enough, Rock saw immediate signs of fortification around the tower.

For one thing, several chasms had been opened around the tower, encircling the structure as bottomless moats.Heavy construction material and/or explosives would have been necessary for the depth of the moats.Rock frowned.He'd already faced a Heracles model, but that was no guarantee that there would not be another here.

Beyond the concentric rings that were the chasms, Rock could see that the lower levels of the tower had been built up.Ladders, bricks and sheets of steel all hung from the sides of the tower, with the appearance of a cancerous growth on the otherwise perfect symmetry of the white edifice.

Sulfurous smoke drifted by in clouds.Rock curled his lip.It was this kind of poison that had brought mankind to the brink of destruction not fifty years ago.The smell of it alone was enough to set off alarms in Rock's internal cleansing system.

"No point in waiting around," Rock muttered, starting towards the tower.

He had broken Wily's power in three places.Three out of six.It didn't take Rock's supercomputer brain to calculate that he was already halfway done with his task; beyond destroying Wily's six generals, his only other concern was to find Dr. Wily himself and bring him to the authorities for justice.

_Justice . . ._

The concept was a farce, and Rock knew it.Was it justice to destroy the Robot Masters?Certainly, they caused unforgivable injury to the human race and murdered countless people.Still, destruction didn't cancel destruction.

In a way, Rock felt sorry for his opponents; they had not always been this way.The Robot Masters that Rock hunted were merely pawns in Wily's bid for world domination, and, in truth, were enslaved by their programming.They were no more than weapons in a war whose stakes were unimaginably high.

Would it be justice to melt down the gun that killed a bank teller in a robbery?In truth, the robber was to blame--not the gun.And in the same way, Dr. Wily was to blame for the death that Rock had already witnessed, and would doubtless encounter again.

Anger abruptly swelled up in Rock.Damn him!Damn that traitor!What had anybody ever done to Dr. Wily that the German robotechnician should make such a strike at his fellow men?Had Rock been human, he knew that his first choice would be to kill Wily, but his programming prevented him from that.

Rock wouldn't have changed that, even if he had the power, but the seeming futility of his struggle enraged him.

And then, even the rage faded away, to be replaced with bitter frustration and sadness.Even Dr. Wily wasn't fully responsible for his own actions; it had been the teleporter that had destroyed his sanity and made him into the monster that controlled the Robot Masters.

Brushing the thoughts angrily away, Rock found himself at the edge of the first chasm.Rubble and debris made a kind of staircase up to the edge of the seemingly endless drop.Rock stood still.

The wind howled across the chasms, resulting in a deep-voiced, discordant choir with a deeply unsettling effect.More haze and pollution-spawned smoke drifted by as Rock waited.He wasn't quite sure what it was that had stopped him from walking up the "stairs," but something definitely told him not to move yet.

_Intuition?_

It was the second time he'd experienced such a feeling, and it vaguely disturbed Rock.He'd forgotten to ask Dr. Light about the subject, and cursed inwardly.It was picosecond later that Rock realized that his memory was perfect, and that it should have been impossible to forget.

Alarmed, Rock ran a virus scan on himself, but could detect nothing.

A sudden sense of dizziness wept over Rock.That is to say, his gyroscopic laser system that helped him to keep his frame balanced malfunctioned slightly, and Rock found himself teetering on his feet.

Sure now that he had suffered some damage, Rock scanned himself again, but to no effect, but for the dizziness again.

Perplexed, Rock pondered the situation.If he were afflicted with a virus, and his scanners hadn't detected it, the only explanation was that the virus had affected his scanning program.The scanning program was an integral part of his overall program, located in priority higher than almost everything except for . . .

Rock's blood would have run cold if he's been human.

Everything except for the Three Laws.

"No . . ."

It was a feeble whisper soon lost on the howling wind and swallowed by the discordant hum of wind across the chasms.

Surely, any virus Wily would inflict on Rock would be brutally quick.Why, then, was Rock still alive?

_Unless he wants me to suffer first . . ._

The thought made Rock grind his teeth.Fired by new determination in the face of such a challenge, he straightened his back against the wind and readied his plasma buster.

_Time is of the essence . . . damn intuition._

Rock took a few steps back.Bracing his boots against the rocky ground, he took a running leap over the chasm and immediately cursed as he came face-to-barrel with a high-energy U.S. Army Issue Plasma Cannon.An industrial orange painted dome nearly as wide in diameter as Rock was tall, the cannon was motion activated, as Rock knew.Sensing the android's motion towards it, the cannon's burst-proof armor split along its seams and opened to reveal a large, cylindrical plasma coil.

Twisting his body in midair to avoid being blasted backwards into the chasm, Rock landed at an angel that would have snapped a human ankle.He quickly rolled and ducked in anticipation of the star-hot burst of energy that he knew would come . . .

Sure enough, less than a second later, the cannon opened fire on the location where Rock had been only moments before.Golden-white energy with more heat than the core of a star crackled and blasted forth from the cannon's main coil.

Acting quickly, Rock lifted his arm and blasted the cannon's main coil, calculating that the added heat would overload it.

It did.

For a space of time that the human eye could not detect, the cannon's coil turned white-hot, and then proceeded through colors of the spectrum invisible to human perception.Then, with a miniature thunderclap, the cannon exploded, hurling superheated shards of steel in hundreds of directions and bleeding foul, dark smoke into the sky, to blend with the rest of the smog.

Rock breathed a quick sigh of relief.Heavy plasma cannons were nothing to be toyed with.

Before Rock could make any move to rise, a silver football-shaped object blasted out of the chasm and rose several meters into the air.Rock tracked it with a growing sense of anger.It was an Arabian "fist" bomb!

The "fist" exploded in mid-air and hurled eight main sections on a three-dimensional axis.Rock ducked and covered his head to avoid them, and quickly stood once the attack had passed.So far, there had been no robots in evidence.Well, fine.He preferred automated weapons to thinking robots anyway; it made his battle less difficult.

He leaped to the top o the stair-formation and scanned the area.

So.Three more chasms to clear.He could see over them from his vantage point atop the stair-step structure.Beyond that, there seemed to be a ruined greeting hall of some kind.Rock couldn't see clearly to the bottom of it for the patches of ceiling which still remained.Still, he guessed that they would be full of various sentries.

Beyond that, the tower itself rose into the sky.Rock could see cancerous additions to the tower; sharpened steel stakes jutted from several places, and he was sure he could detect a myriad of different cannons.

Fine.He'd gotten through more heavily-guarded places.

Forcing himself to move quickly, Rock played a deadly game of hopscotch as he leaped over each chasm, avoiding flying bombs and plasma bursts from the mounted cannons.It was hard work, but quick.As long as he could keep himself moving in a pattern, he knew that the danger would be minimal.

At least relatively.

Landing from his last jump, Rock found himself on the hole-patched roof of the ruined reception hall.

As he had suspected, he could see trouble below, in the form of two multidirectional U.S. Army Rotocannons.As powerful as the Heavy Plasma Cannons Rock had encounted earlier, these could twist on a horizontal axis and fire a burst of up to twenty plasma shots at atime, in as many directions.Such power required massive power cells beneath, which meant that below the room must be several dugouts with the cells housed in them.

Unlike the Heavy Cannons, the rotocannons were set on a timed cycle, and not triggered by motion or pressure plates.Rock quickly determined their timing cycle and leaped across the stable portions of the once-roof to reach a fire-escape.

Climbing up it, he was faced with a mess.

The large room had once been a lounge of some sort.Now, however, it had been dominated by four large heavy Plasma Cannons.The roof of the room had been blown away, leaving only a small patch that was attached to the rest of the displaced fire escape, the steel of which had been torn like paper and placed several meters to the left of Rock.

On the floor of the roof, sharpened steel stakes ensured that any fall would be a disastrous one.Rock cursed quietly and quickly climbed to get as far away as he could from this nightmare of a room.

One by one, the Heavy Cannons opened and loosed their deadly blasts at Rock.Trapped on the ladder, there was little the android could do to dodge their fire.He braced his feet on the rungs and leaped upwards to avoid one blast, and let himself fall a short distance to avoid the next.The third blast missed him completely and blew a section of wall near Rock into dust.

The fourth scored a hit square on Rock's chest.The raven-haired android cried out in pain and felt himself slip several rungs as the searing sensation bit through his armor and crisped his synthetic flesh beneath, revealing sensitive circuitry.

_They'll need time to recharge.Now's my chance._

Quickly, with supernatural speed, Rock scaled the rest of the ladder, jumped to the next section and made his way out of the room.Above it, the ceiling/floor was solid.Rock paused and took several deep breaths.Many more blasts like that, and he wouldn't have to worry about the virus doing him in.

As if his thoughts had been a summoning, Rock felt a twinge in his leg circuitry.He forced himself to move on to the next ladder, which would take him up to the thirteenth floor.He was almost halfway up this section of the tower!

At the top of the ladder, the building stretched out in a relatively flat area for several square meters.Beyond that, Rock could see more stair-structures, presumably concealing long drops to the bottom of the building.

In front of that, however, was a 12-KIF.

Its welding armor was a dull pea-green color, and its photoreceptive equipment was concealed behind a heavy welding mask.In front of it, the 12-KIF held a silver-white welding shield.

_The kind that Blues disappeared while testing, Rock thought._

12-KIF robots, while mute, could understand several key commands in different languages.

"Move," Rock ordered.It was worth a try.

The 12-KIF responded by rotating its shield a few degrees and letting loose a blast of plasma.

Rock easily dodged the attack and retaliated.His shot scored a direct hit on the 12-KIF's torso.Stumbling back a few steps, the 12-KIF fired again.So, too did Rock.As if mirroring one anothers' actions, the pair leaped the shots intended for them and landed on guard.

It was quite intelligent for a simple industrial robot, but Rock soon was able to trick it into falling into a pattern of firing and leaping.Every other time it landed, Rock was able to score a hit. After ten such minor victories, Rock was rewarded with the explosion of the 12-KIF.He had not escaped unscathed, suffering another blow from his opponent's plasma buster.

The next stretch was much the same as the first had been.Three chasms made an effective guarding tool when coupled with heavy plasma cannons and a seemingly endless stream of the zoomorphic "Sharksfang" missiles (complete with shark's face painted on them).

Fighting his way past the attackers, Rock reached another fire escape, and quickly climbed.

_Got to move faster!Rock gritted his teeth.The longer he took, the more chance that the virus would overtake him before he could reach Dr. Light for repairs._

A large, plaza-like room stretched below him, lined with sensor 'bots and rotocannons.Rock blessedly made quick time across the blackened patches of the concrete roof not destroyed by plasma fire.Once, upon looking down, Rock saw a pile of blackened human bones.

His jaw clenched, and he moved faster.Humanity was all but helpless against this threat.If he didn't act quickly, it would be too late!

It seemed like no time at all that he had passed by another room whose floor was lined with sharpened stakes and up to the roof of the building.The roof had also been lined with spikes in some sections, but some creative jumping had taken Rock safely past them.Some equally creative shooting had dispatched a pair of 12-KIFs that guarded the roof as well.

Which left Rock standing before a bunker of sorts.He had reached the top of the tower and found no Robot Master.The squarish structure in front of him would be the entrance to a stairwell that would lead back down, if Rock was any judge of architecture.

Impatient, Rock flung open the door and took a step forward.He had no time for a game of hide-and-seek with this homicidal monster.

Undoubtedly because of the virus' effects, it was almost a full half second before Rock realized that he as falling.His blue-armored hand shot out and found purchase on a cylindrical ladder rung.

This _had been a stairwell; Rock could see the places where the stairs had been.However, it was now just a long, square passageway that led straight down.A ladder still clung to the side of the wall, as a leech might cling to its host.Other than that, there was no way of getting up or down, short of flight._

Rock climbed down the ladder cautiously, avoiding the cube-shaped Eyebots which hovered back and forth, searching for trouble.

At the bottom of the ladder was a trapdoor.

In no mood to be patient, Rock opened the door and looked down.It was about a thirty foot drop, but he could manage that if he was prepared. Taking a deep breath to recharge and mentally commanding his body to behave itself, Rock plunged downwards.

He landed hard, but unharmed, in an empty room.There was no sign of any habitation--human or robotic.The walls were tiled with blue-green rectangular ceramic, and the floor was sturdy, no-nonsense cement.This was obviously intended to be a safe-room of some sorts.

There was no door, and no way of getting back to the top of the room from which he had entered.Rock swore violently.It was a trap!He had been so anxious to do things quickly that he hadn't stopped to think.No it was to late, and the blue-armored android snarled in self-disgust.

A klaxon alarm sounded, and a red light flashed in the room.

_Well, at least I won't die of boredom.It was pessimistic, but Rock was angry at himself and the situation.__Somebody has to notice that and check it out._

Within the minute, "somebody" had.Rock found himself staring at the round, orange and black androbot that had just teleported in.Not stopping to wonder how the androbot had managed to teleport inside a magnetic field, Rock raised his arm cannon.

"So, the great Rockman doesn't even stop to think anymore," the androbot snapped."He just shoots first and asks questions later?"

Rock's lip curled in irritation."Your sick master has ensured that I don't have time to worry about moral questions anymore," he bit back.It was true.Now that he had this virus, Rock had no way of knowing how long he would survive, and thus no time to ponder the morality of his battle.Now he must act first.

"Sick?Is that what you say of everybody who has more power than you?"The androbot's brow furrowed."I had thought better of you than that Rock.It seems we have both changed."

"I'm not Rock anymore," Rock answered, fighting to keep the hurt of that truth out of his voice."I'm Rockman."

"And there _is a distinction," the androbot agreed."I am Hephestas no longer.My name is Bombman.Now, prepare for termination."_

"Shut up," Rock snapped, loosing a string of plasma blasts.

The first hit Bombman square in the chest.The dual-colored androbot stumbled back and grunted as if surprised by the attack.Then his eyes narrowed, and Rock could detect the supersonic whine that signified the activation of a matter-synthesis module.

A black bomb appeared in Bombman's hand.

Rock rushed his adversary, firing the whole time.Perhaps if he could get Bombman to drop the bomb . . .

Bombman made an amazing leap straight over Rock's head and hurled the bomb downwards at his blue-armored opponent.Rock cried out in frustration and pain as the bomb exploded and hurled him back into the tiled wall.Pain sensors screamed alert and Rock struggled to rise as another bomb descended in its flight towards him.

Pushing himself away from the shattered portion of the wall, Rock rolled towards Bombman and fired again.From the angry noise he heard, he assumed he had hit his opponent again--at least once.

"You're better than I expected."Bombman stalked towards Rock as another bomb formed in his hand."I'll try harder."

Rock--horrified--found that he could not move.The virus had rendered him immobile!Pain numbed his circuits as the relays became overworked.Desperate to avoid destruction, Rock tied everything to jog his motion circuits into action.

"Ha ha ha!Look at you, sitting terrified like a rabbit!"Bombman hurled another black orb, which exploded on Rock, hurling him back once again."Aren't you worthy of my combat?Get up and fight, you pathetic scrap!"

Immobilized by the pain and the virus, Rock couldn't even speak.

_How?I can't let it end like this! There must be a way to break its hold . . ._

And suddenly, the virus receded again.

With an angry roar, Rock charged his opponent and tackled him, knocking Bombman to the ground.His plasma buster pressed against the androbot's main thoracic cavity, Rock grimaced with animalistic ferocity.

"You murdering filth," he spat."I don't die that easily."

"Neither do I."As Rock released his blast into Bombman's internal circuitry, the bomb which the spherical androbot had been forming exploded beneath Rock, hurling him across the room with a blast that shook the walls.

For a long moment, a terrible, ghastly silence filled the room.

Finally, Rock pulled himself erect to stand.

Bombman--or what was left of him--lay shattered on the floor.His chest had been blown open by Rock's plasma charge, and its blackened edges peeled back from the main body like rotten fruit which had burst open.The arms were stretched out as if to embrace the sky, and the legs had been separated entirely from the body, and were lying several meters away, leaking circulatory fluids onto the floor.

Ignoring the smell of ozone, Rock stepped forward and reached into the dead androbot's body.Rooting around in the head cavity like a mortician, Rock finally found the renegade androbot's matter synthesis control chip.

A wave of dizziness wept over him again, and Rock quickly activated his teleporter so that he could get back to the lab.The sooner he could get this virus removed, the better.


	9. Firestorm

Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Firestorm**

"That's ridiculous!"

Fireman slammed his fists down on the comm console in frustration."There's no possibility that Rock could have destroyed the other four without help!You're mad, old man!"

Dr. Wily's holographic image smiled."Well, this mad old man is your master, and you're programmed to obey him.Now, if you value your so-called life, you'll do as I say.You know that your programming requires it."

Fireman snarled with frustration."Of course I have to follow your orders, damn you.But you're crazy if you think that Rock is our only concern.He couldn't have beaten my brothers with no help at all!He's a _tool user, for Christ's sake!Doesn't that mean anything to you?"_

"And you're a Waste Disposal androbot, whose only ability is to burn trash."Dr. Wily's sneer was mocking."Don't be an idiot, Fireman.Of course he _was a tool user! Now he's a soldier, just as you are.It's not so strange a concept.You should be able to grasp the idea of __modification."_

The perpetual flame that burned at the top of Fireman's fire-stove head module turned white hot."Don't taunt me, old man.I may be slave to your orders, but I can still cause trouble for you."

"Yes, no doubt," Wily answered, sounding not in the least bit convinced that Fireman's threat was serious.Now do as I command."The three-dimensional image of Dr. Wily's face dissipated into thin air, leaving Fireman alone in the chamber.

"Bastard!" Fireman raged, scouring the walls with white-hot flame."Son of a bitch!Filthy _human swine!!!"He blazed his anger across the walls until they were coal-black and his rage had subsided a little._

Dr. Wily was a damned fool to think that Rock--_Rock--had come so far on his own.A simple, trusting fool like Rock wasn't worth destroying!He wasn't even worth worrying about!Rock was a pathetic philosopher and human-lover who would rather spend his days reading poetry and serving drinks to his master than fighting.How __dare Wily order Fireman to waste his combative talents on such an insect!_

The door to the chamber opened, and Fireman whirled in a blazing frenzy.

"What the hell do you want?"

A mute 12-KIF held a terrified, struggling human.

"I see.Another one."Fireman waved a silver-grey gauntlet in dismissal."Very well.Leave the filthy thing here.I'll take care of it."

The 12-KIF saluted with its free hand.Then it roughly shoved the human forward onto the floor and left the room.

Fireman stood with his hands behind his back, regarding the fear-stricken, quaking human with utter contempt.Finally, he turned his back on the filthy organic creature and shook his head.

"Tell me," he grated through the silver half-mask that concealed the bottom of his face."Tell me, human.How did you come to be here?I thought that all the vermin in New Denver had been exterminated."

There was no answer from the human.

Fireman didn't turn, but spoke in even, measured tones that were more frightening than his enraged screams."I asked you a question, human.You are to answer.Now, let's try again.How did you manage to come here when I have personally seen all the human beings in New Denver destroyed?"

"I--I--"

"Take your time."Fireman's jibe was acerbic.

"I got lost on the road and ended up--"

Fireman turned with the speed of a cat, and in less than a second had lunged across the room and backhanded the man across the face, shattering his cheekbone and opening up several blood vessels.The man's blood-chilling scream echoed through the room for a handful ofseconds.

"I don't like being lied to," Fireman said calmly."Now, you have one last chance.If you tell me the truth, I will let you go.If you don't I will incinerate you like I did those others in the corner."He gestured to a heap of blackened objects that might once have been human bones before hellish heat twisted them beyond all recognition.

"L-let me go?You promise?"The man's voice was weak with fear.Fireman loathed the sound of it.

"Yes.Robots cannot lie.It is in our programming."Fireman grinned beneath his mask.

Although his face was ruined and he was bleeding profusely, the man spoke.Blood and missing teeth slurred his words."I'm from Boulder, out to the west--"

"I know where Boulder is."

"Sorry.I'm sorry.I didn't mean to--"

"Continue."The sooner this was over with, the better.Fireman couldn't stand the blubbering _thing in front of him._

"Well, since we're a couple miles away from New Denver here, there've been some survivors.A couple of us still have televids, and we saw that Rockman had been defeating the generals of Dr. Wily's army."

Fireman restrained himself from roasting the man for even saying Rock's name.

"Anyway, we thought to ourselves that if a robot could beat them, then we could too.So we looted some abandoned stores for weapons and came here to New Denver.We'd heard that the Waste Disposal Plant here was where the general of this precinct was, so we--"

"That's enough."Fireman's hands clenched into fists."You thought that if a robot could do it, so could you?Are you implying that robots are inferior?"

"N-no!That's not what I meant at all!"The man gibbered and clutched his pale hands to his bloody, crushed face.

"How many others were there?"

"Eighteen.That's not counting me.You won't hurt them, will you?"

Fireman laughed."Hurt them?How ridiculous!"

The man relaxed."Oh, thank the Lord.Oh, thank--"

"Of course I won't hurt them," Fireman interrupted."They, unlike you, won't suffer before they die."

The man's face paled."You said--you said--"

"Oh, please.You stupid creatures will believe anything!Of course I can lie.As if I'd let my palace here be infested by vermin like you."Fireman held up his fist."Say good-bye."

The man leaped to his feet and scrabbled against the firmly locked steel door, crying and cursing and pleading all at once.

And since he wasn't facing Fireman, he never saw the white-hot sheets of flame that ended his life and burned him into a twisted, hunched, blackened figure that was barely recognizable as a human skeleton.

*****

It was like being drunk.

That, at least, was what Rock surmised.Never having consumed alcohol, or--even if he had--suffering the organic effects of motor-control loss and muddiness of thought that was called "drunkenness," Rock had no frame of reference.

However, when he appeared in Tokyo, in Dr. Light's lab, Rock fell to the ground in a heap.

"Rock!"Roll's concerned voice cut through the mayhem of reporters' voices."Rock, are you okay?What's wrong?"

Rock tilted his head up.He was in the main reception room of Dr. Light's mansion-like house.Once again, he was faced with a sea of reporters.Faces blurred into one another, and the voices dimmed to a buzz in Rock's auditory sensors.The only thing Rock was truly aware of was a deep, throbbing, humming sound that seemed to come from within his own head.And the pain.

Pain coursed through his titanium musculature, but the blue robot hunter was too drained of energy to make any move or sound in complaint.A grey, static field crackled across his vision.

"Rrrr . . . rroooollll."He finally managed to slur a single word.

Roll was at her brother's side in an instant, hauling him to his feet."Oh my God, what happened to you?"

Rock realized through his virus-induced stupor that she must think that he had been injured badly in the fight with Bombman.His armor was charred to blackness nearly everywhere, and his face was scorched underneath the helmet.

Thinking of his helmet made Rock realize that his head module seemed overheated, so he quickly retracted his helmet into his skull, letting the blessedly cool air of the Tokyo evening ruffle his black hair.The coolness of it felt like a sweet kiss on his feverishly hot crown.

"Speak, Rock!Oh, please speak!"Roll's voice was laden with concern and anxiousness."You've got to pull through this!You're our only hope now!"

Reporters were roughly pushed aside by Tokyo policemen to clear a swath for Roll and her burden.Rock noticed Snap in the crowd, and his two daughters, Julie and Bess.Their faces seemed to be the only real ones in the tumult.

Within seconds, Rock had been heaved on the table.Dr. Light and Roll were immediately bending over him, working frantically at his skull-cap module to unseal his positronic brain."He's going fast," Roll said grimly.

Rock strove to speak."Vvvviiiirrrruuussss."He shivered, despite the heat he felt."Virus."His voice was getting clearer."Dr. W-wily gave me a v-v-v-virus.It--"

"Hush."Dr. Light's voice was firm."We realized what had happened soon after you left.By then, it was too late to reach you.Thank God you were quick in your work, or you might not have survived at all to even reach us again."

Rock felt a searing pain in his head, and the, suddenly, it was gone.All of it.His meters respectively rose or dropped steadily towards normal levels, and his body temperature dropped back to his normal of 92 degrees Fahrenheit.

Relief washed over Rock.He sat up.

"Thanks.I don't know what you did, but it really helped."He grinned at Dr. Light."Is the virus gone?"

Dr. Light looked away.Roll clenched her jaw grimly.

"What?What is it?"Rock's brow furrowed."What are you--"

"The HSL attacked while you were away," Roll said without preamble. "I was powerless to help because of the Prime Rule, but they were beaten back quickly enough by the Tokyo police force.But they killed eight people and stole all the armor that was meant for me."

Rock shut his mouth in surprise.

"It was a planned attack," Roll continued tightly."They were all killed, but for two.One of them escaped.The other was caught by the police.After they pumped his bloodstreamfull of truth-inducing drugs, he confessed that their orders had been to steal my armor and--and--"

"And assassinate me."Dr. Light's voice was bleak.He straightened his shoulders."We were then given a full description of exactly what was to be done with my body."He shuddered at the grisly memory.

"Whose orders?" Rock fought to control the fury in his voice, and felt his emotion circuits heating to dangerous levels.

"The man killed himself before he answered the question."Roll shook her head."It could have been either Dr. Wily or James Walken.Or both."

"And the man who escaped--"

"Woman, actually," Roll corrected."She disappeared without a trace, along with my armor.We're back to square one now, Rock.If you can't defeat Wily, there's no hope."

"I need rest," Rock said flatly."I can't keep this up without some recharge time.You can install this chip while I sleep."He held up Bombman's matter-synthesis control chip."A 'gift' from Bombman."

Dr. Light nodded briskly."Right.And we can fix up your armor, too."The aged robotechnician attempted to smile."I work so hard on your armor, and every time you come back, it's ruined.Plain carelessness, if you ask me."

Rock forced a halfhearted grin as well."Yeah.Well, it's only a little burned this time."

"Go to sleep," Roll urged."We'll take care of things."

"Wait!"Rock sat back up with surprising speed."There's something I've been meaning to ask you about."He indicated Dr. Light with a nod of his head.Dr. Light raised an eyebrow in invitation for Rock to continue."I've been getting these feelings--half-formed ideas of what might happen before it happens.Like intuition."

Dr. Light nodded."It's a trait I had hoped to further develop in you later on.As it is, the programming for it is sketchy at best.But now is not the time to be asking such questions, Rock.Go to sleep so we can work on you."

Rock gratefully slipped into the dark oblivion of his recharge mode.

*****

Snap stepped into the room, accompanied by Bess and Julie.

"Is he gonna be okay?"The swarthy Australian looked with obvious concern at the damaged figure of Rock."I mean, I told him that Cutman--"

Roll looked up, surprise plain on her features."Snap?"She shook her head, as if to clear it."Yes, that's right.You arrived before he left to fight Bombman, didn't you?"

Snap nodded."Yeah.We heard all about him on the news while we were getting here.He's amazing!"

"That he is," Dr. Light said quietly as he worked the matter-synthesis chip into Rock's plasma buster."I only wish . . ."

"What's wrong?" Snap's face turned stormy.

"I'll be blunt," Roll turned on Snap."My brother has been infected with a lethal computer virus by Dr. Wily.It's a self-replicating and self-modifying terror that has a secure grip on areas of his brain that will be destroyed if we tamper with them."

Snap went pale.

"We've managed to delay the effects of it, but he's already had the virus for sixteen hours and forty-eight minutes."Roll took a deep breath."If we don't find a way to knock out this virus, he'll be completely inoperative in fifty-five hours and twelve minutes.So please, let us work.In less than three days, Rock has to defeat the last two Robot Masters and storm Skull Castle.I don't know how much help we can give him, but it will be easier for us to save his life if we can have peace and quiet."

Dr. Light looked reproachfully at his "daughter."

"Roll.Apologize.That was unnecessarily brusque."

Snap stood straight."No need to coddle me, doctor.I'm a tough man, and I understand when it's better to get out and let people work than harry them with questions."he allowed himself agrin."I'm diff'rent than the reporters out there."

Roll genuinely smiled."Thank you.I promise we'll let you know when he can speak again."

Snap nodded and turned to leave.As he was at the door, Bess dropped his hand and rushed over to Rock's supine form."Get better," she said, kissing the android on the forehead.Then she followed her father.

Dr. Light stood in stunned silence for a moment.

"If Rock were awake," Roll said, "I think he'd be crying right now."

"Androids don't cry," Dr. Light said absently.

"Well they _should," Roll snapped._

*****

Juan Iago flicked off the televid screen, and with it, the images of Rock, Roll and Dr. Light.

"So.Chengdu has fallen."He turned to Monique."You got the armor?"

"Yes."Monique, an assassin and top-rate espionage expert, nodded.It was barely more than a brief inclination of her head."We failed to achieve our secondary objective."

Juan waved his hand."It's not important.Dr. Light's death would have been convenient, but not crucial.We have what we sent you for."

"It seems," Monique said, "that we may not be needed to dispatch him after all.If the virus will kill him within a few days . . ."

"No."Juan's rebuttal was flat."Mr. Walken's orders were clear.We're to destroy Rockman ourselves.If we wait for the virus to do our work for us, he may do more damage yet.Above all, Rockman must not be allowed to pinpoint the location of Skull Castle."

That last order had sounded uncharacteristic for James Walken.It had been Juan's understanding that Walken had intended to leave Skull Castle and Dr. Wily to the wolves within a day.Still, it had been unmistakably Walken's voice, Walken's face . . . 

The comm link beeped.Juan hit the green "receive" button.

James Walken's head materialized before the pair of HSL terrorists.

"Mr. Walken," Juan nodded."Everything is going according to plan."

"Good."Walken smiled at the other end."Remember that your duty is to see that Rockman is destroyed before he can reach Skull Castle.That is mandatory."

"Understood," Juan answered.He didn't, though.Why should Walken care what happened to Skull Castle?"Sir, is this channel secure?"

For answer, Walken grinned even wider."We need no longer worry about Wily's snooping.I have taken care of him."

Juan sighed in relief."Good.Thank you, sir.That man gave me the creeps."

*****

"He gave us all the creeps, Juan."Walken commiserated from within the bowels of Skull Castle."Don't worry.He's finished now.I've declared Skull Castle our base of operations."

Juan's staticy image flickered."That's great, sir."

"Walken out."The image of the Brazilian terrorist and his French companion dissolved into a million tiny pixels in the air, scattering like errant fairy dust and disappearing just as quickly.

"Good!Excellent!That was wonderful!"Dr. Wily smiled triumphantly and clapped Walken on the back."A perfect performance!You're getting better every day!"

James Walken's features distorted and twisted, then collapsed back into those of Docman, who grinned widely."Thank you.I owe my adaptability to you, father."

Wily puffed up with pride."Yes, well . . . let's get on with business, shall we?"

Docman's grin turned evil."Time to give the much-vaunted founder of the HSL a little visit."

Dr. Wily's laugh was rich and filled the subterranean room."So it is.So it is, my son."

Docman rose and walked towards the door.Dr. Wily smiled to himself in dark satisfaction.Soon that fool Walken would be dealt with, and Wily would not need to fear for his life within his own fortress.

The German roboticist sat down in a cushioned leather chair and looked back and forth at his laboratory.Things had made quite a turnaround; Rock would be dead within three days, James Walken would be dead within the hour, and Dr. Wily would be the unquestioned ruler of the planet.

As he ruminated, it seemed to Wily that he had started this business with reprogramming the Robot Masters to prove a point, but that point eluded him now.No matter.When he had the world under his thumb, he would conquer the rest of the Solar System.Then he would have the power to banish the hallucinations which denied him sleep and sanity.

Polyphemus rumbled in the corner, and Wily frowned."Go and guard the first ring," he ordered of his massive, stone-plated cyclops."Don't return until I tell you to."

The voices . . .

Dr. Wily clutched his head as a fresh wave of jabbering, inhumanly high voices rose in an eerie choir and drowned out reality.

"_Du bist verruckt, alter Man!"_

"_Sterb im dunkelheit, klein Billy."_

"_Wo ist deine Mutter jetzt?"_

The voices taunted him, picked relentlessly at his mind until the scabs of reason that had grown over his insanity tore open and bled afresh.Wily screamed and waved his arms helplessly as rows upon rows of metal demons marched upon him rending his flesh to blood-slick ribbons.

"_Weg!Away!Leave me alone!"Wily stumbled backwards over a tool chest and landed hard on his posterior.Pain drove him to violence, and the German roboticist hefted a welding laser and swung the heavy tool right into the face of the closest hell-spawned nightmare._

The creature took no notice of the attack, and leaped for Wily's throat, jaws glistening with blood-washed saliva.Dr. Wily screamed and flailed his instrument into darkness.He had one hope . . .

_The teleporter!Dr. Wily managed an ugly grin of mad triumph as he depressed the "teleport" stud on the silver rod within his lab coat._

Time and space twisted for a moment, and reality became a distant vision seen through a kaleidoscope of tortured consciousness.A buzzing like a thousand hives of wasps jabbed Dr. Wily in the temples, as if the sound were a razor-sharp icicle.Then there was a flash of white light, and Dr. Wily found himself standing on the ramparts of Skull Castle.

The demons had vanished, leaving Dr. Wily weak in the knees and nauseated.

Dr. Wily shivered and dropped to his knees.

Rock was to blame for this.Rock and Dr. Light and Roll . . . they had all brought this upon him.But soon, Rock would die.The aged roboticist grinned feebly through his delirium at the thought.Yes, soon.Rock would be less than nothing.

"Nothing!"Dr. Wily forced himself to stand despite the pain in his head.The wind made the tails of his lab coat flap wildly like bats' wings, and his wild hair whipped back and forth in the gale.

Atop the ramparts of Skull Castle, a vision of madness stood.

And it began to rain.

*****

Docman plodded down the hallways of Skull Castle.

He had seen the black-haired Brazilian man Juan Iago enough times to make a convincing holographic shell.The top-heavy emulation robot straightened his shoulders and assumed the features of Juan Iago.This would be too easy.

He pressed the entrance request button of James Walken's quarters.

A moment later, the voice of the HSL founder spoke."Enter."

"Sir," Docman said."I return with good news!"

James Walken stared dubiously at Docman/Juan."Juan?How the hell did you get here?Didn't you just leave?"

"Good news!" Docman replied, ignoring the question."Rockman is dead!Our agents destroyed him near New Denver!"

Walken frowned."Impossible.My spies tell me that he hasn't left Tokyo yet."

Docman stuttered."Y-yes.Well, he was about to go to--"

"Game's up, Wily," Walken spat."Nice replica, but I won't be fooled."Walken pulled a laser pistol from his jacket pocket and let loose a beam of destruction right at "Juan's" midsection.

It passed right through the holographic exterior and narrowly missed Docman himself.

"That was your last mistake, human."Docman raised his arm, permanently converted to a plasma buster, and blasted Walken dead in the center of the chest.Walken gave a strangled cry and fell backwards, blood spurting from the parts of the wound that weren't cauterized.

Except the blood was black.

Docman stood still for a moment, then walked forward and inspected the body.

Near-human skin was stretched across titanium ribs, and the musculature of the body was made of steel.A radiowave transmitter had once been in the chest of the body, to receive remote-control commands.

A decoy.

"A decoy!" Docman bit out loud.Angry, he blasted the robot body into ashes, then turned and stormed out of the room.

And several miles away, at the other end of a set of remote controls, James Walken, pale and sweating, watched through the eyes of one of Dr. Wily's robotic roaches.

*****

Rock awoke to the harsh lights above him.

Roll's face appeared."How are you feeling?Is everything optimal?"

There was a momentary pause as Rock ran a quick scan on himself.Haltingly, he answered."I think so.There seems to be some sort of block on a few of my sensors, though.You. . . ?"

"Yes."Dr. Light's voice spoke from behind Rock.

The male android sat up on the table and swung his feet around the side, letting them dangle.Forcing a grin, he quipped, "So give it to me straight, Doc.How long do I got?"

A spasm of pain passed over Dr. Light's face as he answered."That's hard to say, Rock.We've managed to retard the virus' progress, but we can't stop it.At best, we calculate that you have a little more than two days."

Rock blinked."Two days?Two days until what?"He was afraid of the answer, but had to hear.

"The virus," Dr. Light answered with obvious difficulty, "the virus is self-replicating.It has a firm hold on the module that governs the Three Rules, and we can't get it to let up.As you know, any tampering with that area of your brain could kill you instantly."

"In two days . . ."Rock's voice was little more than a whisper."I have only two days to live?"

Roll gripped his shoulder."We're doing all we can.If you can keep Wily at bay for the next day, the extra time might be enough for us to formulate a counter-program that will nullify the virus."

A deathly pall descended on the room, and Rock stood slowly.

"I see."He looked at his hand."And if not . . ."His hand clenched into an iron fist."If not, I'll live out my last hours destroying my once-friends."The android felt his anger circuit-relays beginning to overheat with too much current.

"Rock . . ." Roll's voice was gentle.

"Damn him . . ."Rock suddenly turned and bashed his fist into the table, splintering the steel surface like balsa wood."Damn that maniac to hell!"He turned on Dr. Light "And damn you for giving me life!Why couldn't I have been a metool?At least they don't--" he made a choking sound and fell heavily to his knees.

Dr. Light stood rigid with half-fear and half-sorrow.

Rock's voice was a miserable, almost inaudible whisper."Don't want to die . . ."

He looked up as Dr. Light's hand came to rest on his shoulder.The aged roboticist's eyes were bright with unshed tears.The analytical part of Rock detachedly noted how the light reflected unevenly off the doctor's corneas."Rock," he said, his voice heavy with emotion."I--you have been as a son to me.I'll do all I can. "He took a deep breath."Life is never so precious as when you fear you might lose it."

Rock looked at his hands and shifted them both into plasma buster configuration.Bitterness seeped into the overtones of his tenor voice as he spoke."Maybe it's better this way.I've killed, and it isn't justice for a killer to go unpunished."

Roll couldn't stand any more of it.She roughly grabbed Rock and forced him to rise, staring straight into his eyes."Stop it!" she ordered harshly."You can't keep blaming yourself for all of this!It's not your fault that you have to fight, and you deactivated--"

"Killed," Rock corrected.

"_Deactivated," Roll snapped "the renegade Robot Masters because it was required by the Second Law.You've acted with courage and justice this whole time, and I refuse to give up on your life yet."She pushed her face right into Rock's."And damned if I'm going to let you give up on it, either."_

Rock took a few surprised steps back."But I--"

"No 'buts.'You straighten up and go do your job.We're going to be breaking our tailbones back here to save your neck, so you'd better get out there and save the world's neck.I won't have that chance anymore."Roll smiled wanly."When this is all over, you'll never have to fight again, but right now, the Waste Disposal Plant in New Denver and the World Power Plant in Croatia need help."

Several seconds passed in silence.Dr. Light stood still as a statue, amazed by the exchange.Never had he dreamed that his programming could have been so successful.Of course, he reminded himself, Roll's program, like her brother's, was self-modifying.When this was all over, he was going to sequester himself away with a voice-activated word-processor and dictate notes until he was hoarse.

Rock finally nodded.New determination glinted in his eyes.

"You're right.I can't give up.I have to save the world from Wily."He paused, and added."And I have to save Wily from himself.Thank you, Roll."He suddenly reached out and crushed his sister in a bear hug."I guess this is what being siblings is about."

Roll couldn't speak, overcome with emotion.

Dr. Light felt a single tear roll down his cheek as Rock turned and departed.

"Oh," Roll said as she hurried after him."I forgot to tell you; you have Hyper Bombs now, just like Bombman's."

Rock made no answer but a quick inclination of the head.Before Dr. Light could say anything to his android "son," the midnight-blue steel of Rock's helmet materialized, and Rock disappeared in a needle of blue-white incandescence.

As Roll returned, he finally found his voice.

"That," he said, "is how you are different from androbots."

*****

When Rock landed in new Denver, the first thing he noticed was the heat.

He had arrived right in front of the Waste Disposal Plant, which was reason enough for the heat.March in New Denver always started out cold, but that had been negated by the awesome blaze that perpetually burned in the Waste Disposal Plant.

From his vantage point here in front of the square, grey building, Rock couldn't see any smoke rising from the massive heat-releasing chimney at the top of the structure.That, at least, had not been tampered with.

The chimney to the Waste Disposal Plant in New Denver was unique.The top of it was equipped with a molecular shield that broke the toxic smoke that rose from the smelting area of the plant into its constituent atoms and released only harmless oxygen, nitrogen and faint traces of carbon into the air.That only the heat--not the smoke--was escaping meant that whichever Robot Master presided over this area had had sense enough not to destroy the shield.

_Or maybe he just hasn't gotten around to it yet . . ._

The thought spurred Rock on to action.The faster he could get through the plant, the faster he would be done with this whole terrible ordeal.He took a deep breath and opened the massive cargo-loading area doors in front of which he had landed.

Rock looked cautiously around and ran inside.The cargo loading bay was one of two on this side of the building.From here, he could see a ladder leading to the upper storage area that was directly above the cargo loading bay.

_No sense in dallying._

With an equal mix of haste and caution, Rock scaled the ladder, plasma buster at the ready.

As soon as his head poked over the top, Rock saw a Rotocannon mounted on the floor of the empty storage area.Smiling grimly, he raised his arm.Whether the cannon was set on a timed circuit or just motion detecting, Rock never found it.With several judicious blasts, he destroyed the rotating cannon before it had a chance to fire.

With that cleared, Rock quickly scanned the rest of the storage area.Finding nothing but a ladder that led up to the uppermost storage area, Rock climbed that, too, and dispatched two similar cannons.

Now, however, he as faced with a small problem.He was in a large, rectangular room.The only entrance or exit lay in the ladder he had just scaled, and one like it at the opposite end of the room.

At the bottom of the ladder, Rock was fairly sure he'd be met by another rotocannon.

A cursory glance provided no clue as to the lower room's contents, except that it was another empty storage room like the one he had just exited a few moments ago.Gritting his teeth and keeping his plasma buster at the ready, Rock jumped down the ladder shaft and dropped ten feet to the ground.

Immediately, he ducked.As he had guessed, another rotocannon was mounted in this room.Only his quick duck had saved him from decapitation by a head-sized blast of plasma.Still lying on his stomach, Rock blasted the rotating stem of the cannon until the main gun separated from its controlling circuitry below and fell useless to the floor.

Another quick jump down the next ladder brought Rock into a nearly identical situation, which he handled with equal alacrity.Now, he found himself in a mirror image of the loading bay through which he had entered.This time, however, the doors opened not on daylight, but into a hellish red inferno.

The inferno was a small burning/smelting pit: one of many in the complex.Liquid-hot metal flowed in a small lake at the floor of the room where Rockman now stood.From time to time, flaming fragments of metal--perhaps they had once been parts of robots--burst out of the molten slag and flew several meters into the air before returning to their fiery graves.

Seeing no point in delaying his necessary trip across the infernal landscape to the ladder he saw beyond, Rock took a running leap and landed on an observation platform in the middle of the lava-sea.

He nearly fell backwards into the inferno when a column of flame blasted upwards through the platform directly in front of him.Cursing breathlessly, Rock noted with no small amount of dismay that his sensors indicated that the ultra-hot air was searing away some of his more sensitive internal circuitry.

Rock took another quick jump and grabbed the hanging ladder as the column of flame melted back into its flaming parent sea.Quickly, eager to avoid any similar outbursts from the temperamental sea of fire, the android gripped rung after rung and pulled himself speedily up the ladder.Once he had safely climbed to the level above the smelting pit, Rock took a breath of the cooler--although still hot--air.

Here, the ceiling and floor had been fractured in multiple places, and gouts of flame blasted through the floor in places where incendiary gas drifted too close to frayed electrical wires.Making his way carefully, Rock reached the seventh story of building.

Blowing on his gauntleted hands to cool them from gripping the red-hot ladder rungs, Rock surveyed the next stretch.From here, flaming blasts still roared up from the ground.Several meters before him, a service corridor ran uninterrupted by flame or rubble.

Thankful for that small convenience, Rock strode forward.He noted with some pride that he had yet to gain any black bars on his critical countdown meter; he was still at full energy.If he kept moving with this speed, perhaps he could be back in Tokyo within only a few hours!

Rock's journey ended abruptly at the end of the corridor.There, the ground dropped off into open space, and finally, judging by the crimson glow from below, into a molten smelting pit.There was only a small section of floor to which Rock could jump from here.That, however, was blocked off every few seconds by an arcing bolt of electricity.

Looking up, the situation was much the same.Electricity crackled there, too.It would be impossible to safely climb the wall to a safer level.Rock cursed.Across the small chasm, he could see that the eighth story seemed fairly safe.If only he could make it past the electrical bolts.

"I don't have time for this," he growled.

Taking note of the intervals at which the electricity built up enough charge to complete the arc, Rock quickly jumped to the undamaged section of the floor, acutely aware of the roar of flames below him.Pausing for barely a second, he coiled his steel-muscled legs under him and launched his body an incredible ten feet into the air to grab the ledge of the eighth-story floor.

After that, the next section of broken floor and frayed electrical wires was child's play to negotiate.Rock quickly made his way across the rest of the eighth story.

_Now what?_

The control center was the likely location of the Robot Master, and that would be on a lower floor.Rock bit his lip in concentration.Finally, after a few moments' deliberation, he walked towards the access ladder that led back down the other side of this level and began to climb down.

"_Scheisse!"Rock swore loudly as a column of flame roared upwards to meet him.Acting out of what might have been instinct in an organic life form, Rock twisted his body to the side and dropped the rest of the way to the ground._

His reprieve was brief.Even as he rolled to stand on his feet, another blast of flame rocketed past him, straight through the floor.Tumbling and struggling to regain his balance, Rock fell straight down a glowing red shaft.

He caught the last rung of the ladder and dangled precariously over another smelting pit.Emergency energy coursed through him, and Rock again felt the robotic equivalent of an adrenaline rush.He exhaled several times to reduce the amount of oxygen in his system, and looked below him.

He was hanging over the main smelting pit now.Its flaming, white-hot molten mass churned slowly beneath him.This was where most of the garbage was dumped and summarily burned.Rock knew that to lose his grip would mean instant death for him.

Below him, and spanning the pit, were several observation platforms suspended above the magma-like surface of the waste-disposal fire-sea.If he could drop onto the nearest one, he calculated a 94% chance that--given optimal structural stability of the platforms--he could successfully reach the other side without befalling any harm.

It was challenging work to jump from platform to platform while avoiding the burst lava bubbles and flaming debris that flew from the hellish bowels of the infernal pit, but Rock finally made it across to the main observation deck.From here, the stairs had been knocked out, but an access ladder still hung down, leading up towards the middle levels, where the control center was likely to be.

Rock climbed the ladder and stared dumbfounded at the place it had brought him to.

Here, a nest of heavily-shielded pipes drained the magma-like substance from the upper levels of the plant where it was melted down to the lower smelting pit.In places, the pipes had been eaten away completely, and molten metal poured slowly from the gaps.

The only way out was up a ladder at the top of the room.Grimacing, Rock realized that he would have to run along the pipes to reach the ladder.The prospect was not a cheerful one, but then neither was it fatal.

Steeling himself for the necessary but painful work, Rock climbed up the nearest pipe, cringing and trying valiantly to ignore the sensors that were screaming pain signals.Within half a minute, the ordeal was over, and Rock had reached the ladder.Nevertheless, those thirty seconds of screaming pain had left him exhausted and drained of energy.

Giving himself a few moments to regain his temporary operating energy, Rock climbed the ladder.

At last--stairs!Rock climbed the iron-web stairs carefully, always aware that a small crack in the structure could send him hurtling down to the blazing magma below.

On high-band radio sensors, Rock could detect multidirection scanning 'bots--which meant that he was drawing close to the lair of the Robot Master.Rock was almost sure that it would be Helios--probably calling himself "Flameman" or "Fireman."

Sure enough, when Rock reached the top of the stairs, he saw a scanning 'bot.Before it could raise any alert, he quickly destroyed it with an expertly-hurled Rolling Cutter.He had not been prepared for the accompanying Sharksfang missile, but it was easily dodged and destroyed.

Making sure to keep clear of the shrapnel hurled by the exploding Sharksfang missile, Rock made his way across the top of the area and climbed slowly down.Through the wire-wrought floor, he could now see the miniature river of molten metal that fed the main smelting pit.

It was only a few jumps and dodges before Rock found himself at the double-reinforced door that closed off the final corridor leading to the main control center.He took a deep breath and mentally congratulated himself on coming so without losing any operating energy.If only it could be this easy when he faced the Robot Master.

The doors opened at a touch to the opening switch, and Rock stepped through.

The rotocannons had been mounted on the ceiling this time, and Rock carefully destroyed each one.As he was firing on the fourth and final rotocannon, he almost slipped on what appeared to be a bar.On closer inspection, Rock saw that it was a fire-blackened human femur.

He gritted his teeth in anger and stepped through the final door.

*****

Fireman stood with his hands on his hips, absolute scorn emanating from every part of him.

"So," he sneered."You've come.You surprise me, Rock.I wouldn't have thought you'd have the strength or the will to get this far."

For answer, the blue-armored android leveled his arm-cannon at Fireman."Shut up and fight, traitor.I don't have time to listen to your arrogant prattle."

Fireman laughed."You dare to challenge _me?You do remember the Second Law of Robotics, don't you?I assume that fool Dr. Light still has you restricted by them."_

"I know the rule," Rockman answered evenly."Now fight."

"Your calculating module is obviously faulty," Fireman spat in contempt."If you honestly think you can defeat me, you're so badly gone that you're not worth saving for Dr. Wily.Prepare to die!"

Fireman let loose a massive blast of flame from his outstretched hands.Nearly two meters in height and several meters in diameter, the wall of flame rushed at Rockman, and Fireman laughed again.Such a fool!To think a simple tool-user should stand a chance against _Fireman!_

It was to Fireman's great surprise that he saw his opponent, limned in shades of gold and crimson by the passing flame, leap over the wall of fire and loose several blasts of concentrated plasma.With a mixture of indignation and surprise, Fireman snarled.

"Very good, Rockman.But that was luck.You cannot stand before the power that I wield!" Fireman hurled another wall of flame.This one was quickly followed by another.Both left trails of flame on the floor.

This time, Rockman could not--as Fireman observed with gratification--dodge both.The second attack slammed home, hurling Rockman to the floor.He cried out feebly.Fireman grinned to himself beneath his half-mask.

"I'm not done yet," Rockman said.As Fireman watched, the light blue parts of the android's armor turned silver-white, and the midnight-blue parts turned forest green.

"Amusing!" Fireman chuckled, "But I can still see you, my chameleon friend!"

A black orb formed in Rockman's left hand.Fireman had only a few picoseconds to recognize it as a bomb before Rockman hurled it.Out of fear and surprise, Fireman blasted several walls of flame at his opponent.

The bomb exploded, momentarily blinding even Fireman.When his optical sensors adjusted to the light, he could see no sign of Rockman.

"Heh."Fireman shook his head.The flames must have obliterated the pathetic fool."That was too easy," he said aloud.Contempt made his voice steely.

"Oh?"

Fireman had virtually no time to see from whence the attack came.As he turned his head partially upwards, he beheld with terror a rapidly descending vision of silver and frosty-blue.Before he could cry out, Rockman had plunged a massive icicle directly through the opening of his stove-top head and into his body.

Fireman fell to the ground, his electrical motors making his limbs twitch from the now-useless emergency energy.In his last moments, he watched in mounting terror and disbelief as several more icicles formed in Rockman's hands.Amazingly, they did not melt in the fiery atmosphere.

Without preamble, Rockman plunged the icicles into five different key locations in Fireman's body.On the last, Fireman's vision blackened, and his motors ceased to respond to his mental commands.

His last thought before he died was: _Impossible!_

Fireman never saw the look of sorrow that passed over Rock's face when he knelt and removed a chip from Fireman's mutilated body.He never saw that Rock walked to the computer console at the end of the room and deactivated the shield.

And so he never saw when, long after Rock had departed, the humans finally arrived and threw his body into the smelting pit.


	10. Wax Wings

"I think it was probably Vajurila who said it best back before the liberation: 'If all else fails, fry the bastards

"_I think it was probably Vajurila who said it best back before the liberation: 'If all else fails, fry the bastards.Irregulars might be tough, but run enough electricity through even Sigma himself, and he'll light up like a Christmas Tree.__'Wise words, spoken by a wise repliroid.So fear not, Dr. Doppler; even if I have to waste all my energy blasting those Hunters for you, it'll be done.Nobody likes being electrocuted."_

--Electro Namazarus (Volt Catfish), directly following the revolt of Doppler Town

**Chapter 9**

**Wax Wings**

It had been difficult, and hard to reconcile at first.

James Walken heaved a nervous sigh, his shattered nerves frayed.The leader of the HSL had gambled with his life; and it had very nearly cost him.If the rest of the League ever found out about this, he would be lynched in a second.

James Walken had special ordered the robot to be built in secret by the remnants of the New Frankish Empire quite some time ago.It was supposed to be illegal, but the nations that had been France, Italy and Spain were still poor from reparations, even after all these years.James Walken was, among other things, rich.No sensible roboticist would turn down millions of dollars, even if it were for a job that was highly illegal.

Especially, Walken knew, if the man were starving.

And so James Walken had contracted Dr. Benoit Fitzgerald to build a robotic duplicate of the HSL's founder.

Of course, it wasn't a robot in the truest sense--it was entirely remote-control operated.That was how james Walken excused the sin to himself.Of course, robots were evil, and using a robot to bring about the downfall of robots was just an example of how evil always planted the seed of its own defeat, even as its black tree grew.

If ever questioned, that was how James Walken would answer.

In truth, he was still--in his heart--a paranoiac who had never felt safe after watching the brutal death of his father decades ago.After Dr. Wily's frequent outbursts, Walken had abandoned Skull Castle in secret, leaving behind a remote-controlled robotic duplicate of himself.

A duplicate which had cost him over ten million dollars.

A duplicate for which the brilliant French roboticist had later been put to death by the HSL for manufacturing.

A duplicate which had just been utterly destroyed by some _thing that wore the guise of Juan Iago.James Walken's fury rose at the gall of it.That Dr. Wily should try to assassinate __him!He, James Walken, was far more fit to live than the antichrist who ruled Skull Castle!_

And what the hell had that thing been?

Walken shivered uncontrollably.Were it not for his cautious nature, that might have been him that suffered a fatal plasma wound.Walken tried not to imagine how it would feel to be disemboweled by a blast so powerful that his viscera would be vaporized instantly upon contact.

Now was the time to act.

He had already spoken to Juan since the incident, and the pair had decided to storm Skull Castle.Even now, the mass of the Human Supremacy League would be gathering just out of range of Skull Castle's radar-detection system.Within a week--if that--Wily and his demon-robots would be dead along with Rockman.

Even in his state of semi-shock, James Walken was arrogant enough to let a nasty smile form on his now-pasty features.Yes, soon Wily and all other obstructions to Walken's supremacy would be dead.

And James Walken would rule the world.

*****

Monique narrowed her eyes and inspected herself in the mirror.

It was as if the armor had been custom-tailored for her.Taking a few experimental steps, she saw that the light blue body glove seemed to move with her skin, so that no folds or creases reflected any light.As for the titanium-mesh armor underneath the body glove, it was weighty without being heavy enough to slow Monique down in a potentially fatal situation.

"Well?"

Monique turned towards Juan Iago, who--at the moment--was the picture of impatience.

"Does it work?" Juan asked.

"Seems to," the assassin replied noncommittally."But this," she indicated the egg-shaped sheath which covered her hand and the laser blaster she held in it, "will take some getting used to."

"Get used to it quickly then," the second-in-command for the HSL snorted."You've got less than an hour before your reign of terror begins, 'Rockman.'"

Monique allowed herself a sardonic grin."Whose idea was this, anyway?"

Juan lowered his voice and shifted nervous eyes back and forth, as if trying to avoid any unwanted attention."Actually, I think it was Dr. Wily's idea, but our grand exalted leader has convinced himself that it was his idea to begin with."

The assassin snorted."Typical.All you religious fanatics are the same."

Juan straightened with a hurt and angry look in his eye."Fanatics?Please remember whom your addressing, Ms. Jansen.I _am your employer, and second-in-command of the largest operative army in the world at this time."_

"And I," Monique replied, "am capable of gutting you from this distance without so much as a blink of my eye, so don't get any ideas into that self-righteous head of yours.Besides," she added, "religious fanatics always have the best pay."

"I think it's time you got going," Juan snapped."Take this," he handed her a teleporter, "and go to New Denver.Kill any humans you find there."Observing no reaction from Monique, he continued."After that, you go to Croatia.Same drill."

"I can remember my orders after the first dozen reminders," Monique answered.Then, looking suspiciously at the teleporter, "Are you sure this thing's safe?I know you're paying me a lot, but--"

"Perfectly safe," Juan assured her."Believe me, there's nothing that could go wrong."

Monique rolled her eyes before she disappeared in a flash of white light."Oh, sure."

Juan stood still, breathing in the ionized air for a few moments.Of course, the teleporter was just as likely to kill her as to work, but neither way particularly mattered to the Brazilian guerrilla.After the attempt on Walken's life, Juan understood that it was paramount to launch as many attacks against Rockman as possible so that the main force of the HSL could storm Skull Castle while Rockman was busy with diversions.

And besides, he reflected, framing Rockman for the death of hundreds of innocents would be a fitting irony.

Juan grinned wolfishly and then turned to his work.Explosives were his specialty, and there would be great need for them at the siege of Skull Castle.

*****

"Damn," Rock muttered."That hurts."

"Quit complaining, and watch your mouth," Bess ordered with matronly authority as she helped Roll graft replacement skin to Rock's body."I think it was silly of you to fight a robot that could do this to you anyway."

Rock stifled a grin, despite his grim turn of mind.Snap's ten-year-old daughter had taken her job as honorary nurse very seriously.Roll, after her initial reaction of amusement, could see no harm in letting the child help place strips of adhesive skin on Rock's charred body.After all, his frame had long since lost most of its heat, so there was no way the child could burn herself.

"So," Roll said, "you look like you're doing pretty well."She managed a smile as she added, "At least, except for your skin."

"Yeah," Rock answered curtly.

"Cheer up," Bess said, "Dr. Light thinks he might have found a way to neutr . . . neu . . . neuter the virus!"

Rock had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing."I think you mean neutralize," he said, "But the news is appreciated."Casting a look at Roll, he suggested, "Why don't you go and see how your dad is doing?"

"'Kay," bubbled Bess, and she bounced out of the room.

After a few moments of silence, Rock asked, "Is it true?Has Dr. Light . . ."

Roll made a gesture halfway between a shrug and a nod."He said that to Bess, but I'm really not sure if he was just trying to be optimistic or not.He's been locked up all this morning trying to devise an anti-virus that will help, but the only product I've observed so far is lots of muted swearing from his room."

"So . . ." Rock flexed his right arm, testing the feel of his new syntheflesh."Only one more General to defeat."He made a fist."I wonder what Wily has done to Icarus."

Roll didn't answer; it was a rhetorical question, as she well knew.

Clearing her throat, she asked, "So, did you get anything from--"

"Fireman?" Rock answered, "Yes.I'll just recharge while you install the chip."He proffered the data chip between his index and middle fingers.

Roll accepted the chip and removed a small, hand-held computer module from her pocket.Rock looked on, semi-interested, as she inserted the chip into the top of the small device.His sibling stared critically at the small screen for a moment before nodding curtly and removing the chip.

Rock couldn't help himself."What is that?"

"It's a chip-analyzer," Roll answered as she turned towards her work table."I thought that maybe if I modified my little computer to tell me how compatible a chip's infonet structure is with your brain, then it'd save me time on adjustments."

"Good idea," Rock said admiringly."So what'd it tell you?"

"Well, the Firestorm weapon should basically give you the ability to shoot a sphere of fire about the size of your head.You won't get a wall of flame, I'm afraid, but you should be temporarily shielded from any attacks."

"How's that?"

Roll gave her brother a look of mock-annoyance."I thought you were going to recharge."

"Yeah, I guess so."Rock lay back and closed his eyes."Well, let me know when you're done.I have a feeling that this next job is going to be pure hell . . . as if the last one wasn't."

"Huh."Roll grunted noncommittally."Well, get some rest, hero.I have some work to do on you, and there's not much time left."

Rock's momentary light mood evaporated as he pondered the truth of Roll's statement.He was beginning to feel the effects of the virus again; it was a constant reminder of his newly inflicted mortality.

"Sweet dreams," Roll said.

As Rock switched into recharge mode, he wondered whether she had been serious or joking.

*****

Insane giggling bounced off the plated walls of the double-shielded chamber.The echoes found one another and twisted together to create an effect that was at once grimly comical and unsettling.Added to the initial giggling came peals of laughter, each tinged with irrationality and craziness more than the last.The twisted overtones of the laughter were enough to drive a mortal to insanity just by listening to them.

And realizing that made the androbot laugh even harder.Dr. Light would have been amazed to see one of his creations laughing with such human gusto.However, he would have quickly tired of the discovery in favor of finding a way to escape the manic giggling.

"Bring in the next one!" Elecman managed to gasp between chuckles.

The black-armored androbot flexed crimson-gloved hands and savored the moment of anticipation.His "throne room" as he had dubbed it, perched atop the massive World Energy Plant, and as a result, all of his visitors or victims were made to climb a long ladder to reach him.Their entrance to his chamber was more often than not terribly undignified.

This, of course, was of the utmost amusement to the renegade Robot Master.

After a moment, robotic hands roughly shoved a cowering human up through the floor entrance to Elecman's throne room.The pitiful man looked to be in his late thirties, and was covered with grime and mud.Perhaps this was one of the captured escapees, Elecman mused.

In broken Croation, Elecman spoke."What is your name, human?"

"My-my name?"The man seemed taken aback to be addressed in his own language.

Elecman fell on his back in gales of laughter."Lord, what fools these mortals be!" he gasped.Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the laughter stopped, and Elecman was on his feet, lightning fast.Within half a breath, he was standing directly before the terrified man, holding a crackling ball of energy in his hands.

"Your name, human!Now!"All mirth had fled from his voice.

"Y-yuri," the man stuttered.

"Heh."Elecman rolled the name around in his mind."Yuri.Heh heh.Ha ha ha!"

Unsure what to think of this insane robot who laughed at everthing, Yuri took a nervous half-step backwards.

"Don't move!" Elecman snarled, his angry voice echoing across the room.

Yuri stopped dead in his tracks.

Casually, Elecman walked towards his prey."Do you know what they used to call me?" he asked.Receiving no answer from the man, he continued."My name used to be Icarus.Now, if you can tell me who Icarus was, and why I got that name, I'll give you a sporting chance at life.How does that sound, human?"

Yuri nodded miserably."Well.That sounds well, master."

"Oh!" Elecman clapped his hands together in glee."Master, is it?I like that.Ha ha ha!Yes, indeed.I like that very much, human.Did you know that you are the first out of all those--" he gestured to a pile of corpses, barely recognizable for their burned states, "--to call me Master?"

"Greek?"

Elecman cast a derisive look upon the man."What's this drivel you're spouting, worm?"

"G-greek, Master?Icarus is a Greek name, isn't it?"Yuri shook with near-hysterical fear.

There was a moment of deadly silence, in which the Croatian swore he could hear his heartbeats echoing off of the walls.Then Elecman burst out in another peal of laughter.

"Yes!Yes, absolutely!Oh, you're good, Yuri.Now, Yuri--" the androbot paused momentarily."I _may call you Yuri, mayen't I?"Not waiting for a response, he continued."Now, Yuri . . . tell me who Icarus was."_

"I-Icarus," Yuri shook."Ah, he made wings of feathers and wax and flew away from prison?"

"And he lived to tell the tale?"

"Y-yes, Master."Yuri quivered.

Elecman nodded."Very good.Very good, Yuri."He took a few steps closer."But I was speaking of Icarus, not Daedelus."

Yuri's blood ran cold.

"Nice try," Elecman chuckled, and released millions of volts and amperes' worth of electricity into the hapless man.Keeping a firm grip on the body, Elecman began to giggle as it jiggled around with the force of all the energy coursing through it.Soon, the body began to smoke, and the head burst into flames.

Unable to control his mirth any longer, Elecman collapsed to the floor in helpless gales of laughter."Woo hoo hoo!Heh.Did you see him dance?!Ha!You should have seen the look on his face!"He prattled to nobody for a few more seconds before making several mad leaps into the air and calling down the shaft.

"Send in the next one!"

*****

"A decoy."Dr. Wily clenched his fists until his nails bit red crescents into his oil-grimed palms."That _idiot?How could he have the foresight?"_

Docman shifted uncomfortably."I do not know.I only tell you what I--"

"I believe you," Wily snapped, with a dismissive wave of his hand."Well, we'd better get ready."

"Ready?"Docman, still in his holographic cloak of Juan Iago, displayed a confused expression, in hopes that Dr. Wily would notice and congratulate him once again on a job well done.

The German roboticist didn't even notice.With a frown, he answered, "Yes, get ready.Prepare.You should understand that."Without giving his creation time to respond to the jibe, Wily explained."I'm sure now that fool Walken will try to attack me.And the way Rock--" he spat the name with such fury-laden hate that Docman took an involuntary step backwards, "--is on the verge of toppling my last General."

"A siege, then?"Docman dropped his holographic cloak and looked in earnest at his god-creator.

Wily, however, made no answer.He stared at something unseen in the corner before finally shivering, despite the heat in the nether chambers of Skull Castle.With snake-quick movements, Dr. Wily gripped a concealed laser pistol and blasted away a nearby section of the wall.

Panic in his eyes, he turned to Docman."Do something!" the mad scientist pleaded.

Docman adjusted his photoreceptor intake to include all wavelengths of light, and stared dutifully at the place where Dr. Wily had loosed a laser blast.Nothing appeared to him but the infrared glow of the still-hot wall fragments on the ground.

"You're against me too!" Dr. Wily screamed, leveling the pistol at Docman's head.

Docman dropped to the floor at Wily's feet and groveled."No, Master.Please, don't kill--"

But it was already over.Wily looked incredulously down at Docman for several long moments.After a near eternity of silence, Docman's aural receptors picked up the barely audible whisper of his creator."What have I done?"

In a daze, Dr. Wily walked out of the room.His right arm, hanging slack at his side, still gripped the laser pistol.Frightened, but unwilling to leave his master, Docman followed.Hoping to avoid another outburst, he stayed in the shadows as he followed, using his holographic abilities to blend more easily.

Several minutes passed while Docman stealthily pursued his "father" through the nightmarish honeycomb-maze of Skull Castle's lower levels.And when he finally deemed it safe to approach Wily more closely, the German scientist vanished with the telltale line of white fire from a teleporter.

"Damn!"Docman swore violently and turned back.There was no telling where Dr. Wily had gone now.He was beginning to wonder of Dr. Wily's already crippled sanity would hold out long enough command the siege, or if he, Docman, would need to take over.

Had the androbot had tear ducts, he would have wept.

*****

Dr. Wily appeared in the seat of his giant mech.here, in his ultimate creation, was the only place he felt safe now.Despite the fact that his Skull Castle was one of the best fortresses in the world, and that perched in the Andes, it was incredibly defensible, it wasn't enough. Despite the fact that he was guarded by his miraculous cyclops robot and Docman, and even that half-finished robot in the sewer system, and that he had over a thousand robot soldiers in the castle, it wasn't enough.

Dr. Wily was the most powerful man in the world at the moment.With over nine different Skull Castles spread out across the globe, each in ultra-secret locations and virtually impossible to find, even for those who knew where to look, he controlled the best-defended military installations on the planet.

But it wasn't enough.

Only here, in the glass bubble-encased cockpit of his massive war mech, floating lazily a few meters above the ground, did Dr. Wily feel even the slightest bit secure.Here, the visions did not come to him.Here, he was in charge of the world.

Suddenly feeling very foolish, Dr. Wily looked at himself, dressed in a dirty lab coat and streaked all over with dirt, grease, oil, sweat and tears.Here he was, cowering like a little child in his fortress, when he should be celebrating!

After all, Rock would be dead within a day and a half, and James Walken would be nothing but an insect throwing himself impotently against the impregnable walls of Skull Castle.With the world's hero gone and the only man who might challenge him close enough to kill at his leisure, Dr. Wily would have nothing to stand in his way.

He began to chuckle.

Then he began to laugh.

And when he realized that he would finally be able to banish the visions, he broke into full scale guffaws.

Within a glass bubble in the lowest depths of Skull Castle, a vision of madness giggled to himself.

And outside, the rain abated.

*****

When Rock awoke, his internal chronometer warned him that he had only thirty seven hours and 16 minutes left in life before the virus ended everything.The sensors in his backhad slightly overloaded, and the surplus energy returned to his main CPU as pain signals that were singly minute, but collectively irritating.

"Wonderful," the android snapped as he sat up."I've got 37 hours to live, and I just woke up with a backache."He glared at anything and everything in the lab room that would have his anger before standing and inspecting himself.

Pulling up the weapons submenu in his brain, he noticed that there were two new additions.Besides his plasma buster, the rolling cutter, hyper bombs and ice slasher, there were now firestorm and magnet beam.

"Magnet beam?" he mused aloud.

"It's not finished yet," Dr. Light answered from the back of the room.Rock turned so he could see his creator-father.The white-bearded man shook his head."We've got most of it transferred into your system, but there's a crucial piece that we don't have yet."

"What does it do?" Rock asked.

"It should use a strong magnetic field to pull trace amounts of iron out of anything nearby and create a small levitating platform," Dr. Light answered."We've got everything working, but the only electromagnetic super-conductive coil we had disappeared with Roll's armor, and the local power plant is understandably reluctant to part with theirs."

"Hmph. Any word yet on Roll's armor?" Rock asked.

Dr. Light's expression turned grim, the corners of his eyes becoming pinched."As a matter of fact, yes.It's bad.Very bad.I was thinking not to even tell you yet, but I suppose you'll have to know anyway."

Rock experienced the robotic equivalent of feeling a large stone settle in his stomach.

"What?What is it?"

"Follow me," Light instructed."Take a look for yourself."

With his apprehension circuits already firing repeatedly and his anxiety relays working overtime, Rock followed his creator, trying to ignore the millions of grim hypotheses that sprang to mind.He was equally unsuccessful with each one.

"It's been all over the holovid since just after you went into recharge mode," Dr. Light said.Gesturing angrily towards the living room, he stopped to let Rock complete the journey himself.

Rock glared apprehensively at the three-dimensional display that hung in the middle of the living room.Smoke drifted across the remote camera's lens, partially obscuring the events transpiring before in a film of darkness, and a large, dark something was blocking the lower left hand corner of the screen.Now and again, flashes of light could be seen in the far distance, accompanied by muffled shrieks.

His anger circuits heating, Rock realized that the dark shape obscuring the left corner of the display was a blackened human arm; the radius and ulna poked grimly out of heat-crisped flesh.The cameraman, Rock presumed.Since the grisly third world war, it was not an uncommon practice for news stations to keep broadcasting from operational cameras, though their operators had been killed.The practice disgusted Rock.

"Where is this?" Rock demanded, turning to Dr. Light.

"Croatia," Dr. Light answered."Just outside the World Power Plant."

"What the hell is Wily doing?"Rock slammed his titanium fist into an open palm."Does he think I won't try to stop him if he destroys the place first?"

"Worse than that, I'm afraid."Snap stood from his previously unnoticed place on the couch.Rock smiled wanly at his friend, but was unable to muster the enthusiasm for a proper welcome in the face of such destruction.

"What do you mean, 'worse'?"

Snap cleared his throat."It's you."

"What?!"Rock's eyes went wide.

"Well, not you," Light clarified, stepping into the room and placing a hand on his "son's" shoulder."It seems that Dr. Wily has created a duplicate of you."

"That's impossible!" Rock snapped, angry at the situation."He hasn't had the _time!"_

"We don't know how long he's been working on it," Dr. Light countered, "But if you have your doubts, let me show you."He raised his voice."Back three minutes."

Obediently, the holovid filled with static for a moment while it accessed the data it had replayed three minutes previously.The image fizzed and stretched across the holographic "cube" of its playing field for a moment before settling down to its replay.

"This is Susan Holmgrem reporting live from the World Power Plant," a willowy figure in purple said into a microphone.Rock recognized her immediately.Susan Holmgrem was a British journalist who was known for her innate ability to find a dangerous situation, get embroiled in it, and then live to report about it.The android felt his anxiety circuits heat.

"Following the heroic crusade against evil by Megaman," she said, "we are standing on the last stronghold of outlaw Dr. William Wily's power.The World Power Plant here in central Croatia--" a map appeared in the corner of the screen, detailing the area, "--is held by a renegade Robot Master calling itself 'Elecman.'Early reports indicate hundreds dead personally at the hands of this monstrous androbot."

A line of blue fire appeared several meters behind the reporter.

Rock's emergency power generator upgraded itself to standby status as his anxiety circuits began to overheat.Dr. Light and Snap could both hear him half-whisper a single word.

"No."

A figure garbed in pale blue stalked quickly towards the camera.Raising an egg-shaped weapon on the end of its arm, it loosed a blast of energy.Susan Holmgrem had barely a split second to turn, not realizing that her own death was upon her.

Rock bit back the impulse to close his eyes as the British reporter dissolved before the screen in an intense flare of light that blanked the holovid display for a moment.When the image was restored, there was no trace of her.

"Oh, shit."It was the cameraman's voice.The camera angle skewed and twisted crazily as the cameraman turned to run for his life.Rock knew it would be of no avail.For a few agonizing seconds, no sound of pursuit could be heard.

Then, without warning, the sound of plasma crackling through the air and a barely perceptible "umph" heralded the demise of the cameraman.The camera crashed to the ground, filling the screen with static for a moment, before the picture was restored.

Rock stared bleakly at a vision of . . .

Himself.

There, pictured with damning clarity on the screen, was Rock's armor, Rock's helmet, and even his own face.Hawk-blue eyes stared directly back at their twins on the other side of the screen.

"Freeze frame." Rock commanded, shaken.

Dr. Light stepped forward."You see," he said, "Wily has sent 'you' to destroy.What he hopes to accomplish isn't exactly certain, but it's my guess that he's trying to rob the people of their hope."

"It's happened in New Denver, too," Snap continued the thought where the roboticist had left off."With their 'savior' suddenly against them, the populace has nothing to hope for, and Dr. Wily will have a much easier time destroying you."

"Zoom, times 50," Rock snapped, ignoring both humans."Coordinates 85,67,1456 to 786,900,3095."He glared at the holographic cube, before turning swiftly to Dr. Light an Snap."There!Do you see it?"

Both men looked blankly at the seemingly meaningless zoomed-in portion of the screen.Dr. Light suddenly hissed sharply.

"A holographic emitter!" he exclaimed, recognizing the tiny array of lights, barely visible at the top of "Rockman's" face.He furrowed his brow."But why?"

Snap grunted."I don't get it.If Wily is such a genius, why didn't he just build a robot to look like you instead of using a hologram cloaker?"

"Maybe he didn't have the time," Dr. Light suggested.

"Maybe it's not a robot," Rock countered.Both Snap and Dr. Light turned to look at him."What if this isn't Dr. Wily's doing?"

"What purpose--?" Snap didn't bother to finish the question.

Rock paced to the end of the room. "You said that an HSL terrorist stole Roll's armor."It was a statement, not a question."What if this is purely an HSL plot?That could be an assassin in Roll's armor!"

Dr. Light frowned."I don't see why the League would be destroying Dr. Wily's base.That seems counterproductive."

Snap smiled grimly."Methinks there be trouble in paradise," he said."It makes sense that the bloody League would turn on Dr. Wily once it was obvious that he was losin'.The HSL is probably makin' trouble for him as we speak."

Rock's eyes widened--a human response he hadn't even realized he'd picked up."If that's true, then Dr. Wily's life is in danger!We have to find him fast!"

"Better to let the League kill 'im," Snap muttered darkly.

Rock shook his head."One madman killing another madman isn't justice."

"All right," Dr. Light answered."I'll start working on some way to pinpoint Dr. Wily's location.You get to Croatia and liberate that power plant.Be careful of that impostor.He may still be there, and if he's human, you can't--"

"I know," Rock answered curtly."Wish me luck."

Nobody in the room spoke as the android activated his telporter.Rock wondered grimly if his last day and a half of life would be spent in battle.

Snap shielded his eyes against the too-bright glare of the blue-white teleport beam.

Thirty-six hours and 59 minutes.

*****

Early morning haze misted the air.

The spire-like structure of the World Power Plant towered over the city of Keliva.Outlined in shades of pale azure and grey by the early morning sky, the large, cylindrical building appeared as a giant, pole-like Christmas Tree.A myriad of lights flashed within, visible only as specks of luminance from the outside.Multicolored electrical discharges from broken power couplings lit up entire floors of the otherwise grimly dark structure.Now and then, the beacon light atop the tower flashed at seemingly random intervals.

The few people who had not fled the city or been exterminated by the renegade robots awoke silently.Acting out of the past few days' habit, they armed themselves with whatever weapons were close to hand.On the fringes of the city, the people switched the safety off of their pistols, charged up their small laser guns, and readied their supplies of grenades and heavy guns.

Each one remembered the threat of the city's self-proclaimed master, Elecman.Holding aloft a barely recognizable stump of a human skeleton, he had proclaimed from his throne room atop the tower to everybody watching the holocaust that he intended to wipe out all pockets of resistance in the city.

Taking hope from the defeat of Dr. Wily's other five generals by Rockman, the people had risen up against Elecman the previous night . . .

Only to be met by Rockman himself, who incinerated half of the militia intent on taking back its freedom by force.Those few who survived the encounter had fled in panic and terror.Was it possible that their savior had turned renegade as well?As the dreaded news spread like wildfire throughout the city's remaining inhabitants, the spark of hope was extinguished, and the people prepared themselves for death.

So, on this early morning, the sentinels were surprised to see a line of blue energy descend upon the Power Plant itself, and not into the city proper . . .

*****

When Rock arrived, with only thirty four hours left to live, he was surprised to find himself in the main structure of the Power Plant itself.Unlike the rest of the Robot Masters Rock had faced, Elecman apparently feared no intrusion by an outside force.

Not sure whether to interpret the information as a good sign or a bad sign, Rock shook his head.Despite the lack of a magnetic field preventing teleportation to the tower itself, the climb up would be no picnic, and the electromagnetic fields generated by the power plant itself made it highly dangerous--if not flat impossible--to teleport within the tower.

Rock gritted his teeth as a wave of pain washed over him.The virus was establishing a firmer grip on his system, and had begun to break past the barrier placed by Dr. Light and Roll.He would have to move quickly in this area, or risk falling prey to the almost certainly lethal effects of the virus.

Cursing Dr. Wily and the HSL, the android turned his crystalline blue eyes up to take in his surroundings.He was at the bottom of a burned-out Power Induction tube, he surmised.The World Power Plant was built in such a way that fifteen of these colossal tubes surrounded the tower's base and extended thousands of feet into the ground.

Every ten feet or so, an access platform jutted out of the cylindrical wall.Rock squinted, trying in vain to see the top of the shaft.Despite adding a little power to augment his vision, Rock could still only see the access ladders and platforms extending upwards for hundreds of feet.There was no telling where the shaft emerged into daylight.

Taking a deep breath to fuel his fusion generator, Rock decided that the best course of action would be to simply climb out of the Power Induction shaft so that he could get a sense of where Icarus was.Undoubtedly, the atomic energy androbot would be at the top of the tower, which would mean grueling hours of climbing.

Hours, Rock reminded himself bleakly, that he could not afford to waste.

"All right," he snapped, "Then stop wasting time!"

The quickest route would be the direct one, so Rock leaped up to the nearest access platform.

Immediately, he was knocked off of his feet and almost back down to the floor by a multidirection sensor 'bot which patrolled the platform.

Irritated at his own carelessness and having lost operating energy already, Rock deftly switched to Rolling Cutter and disposed of the sentry robot in a flash of light.More cautiously, he took an experimental leap upwards to see if a sentry 'bot guarded the next platform.

Sure enough, Rock's aural sensors could detect the supersonic whine of a sensor 'bot's small engine running.As his head cleared the shelf, the sensor 'bot accelerated towards him, stopping at the edge, as if it were confused.

Hoping to destroy it before it could send an alert signal to Icarus, Rock loosed another Rolling Cutter.As he fell back to the first platform, he could hear the _snick-snick and muted explosion that signified success._

So it went for several stories.Rock felt himself slipping into the rhythm of the jump-fire-jump pattern quickly, so he conserved time by pondering which weapon in his small arsenal would do the most damage to the enemy he would face at the top of the tower.

His normal plasma buster would suffice in a pinch, Rock supposed.However, Icarus had been built to hold large amounts of energy within himself, and thus was double-shielded against energy discharges.While enough plasma bullets would eventually take the atomic energy androbot down, Rock did not look forward to the long and arduous process of the battle.

Hyper Bombs, while useful, would detonate too slowly; Icarus had always been fast, and Rock assumed that, if anything, he would be faster now.Besides that, Icarus was an excellent jumper, and simple calculations indicated that he could leap out of harm's way long before the bomb exploded.So Bombman's weapon was out.

Using the super-strength he had "acquired" after defeating Gutsman would most likely prove suicidal.Rock briefly entertained the idea of merely rushing his adversary and tearing him apart limb from limb, but he knew that doing so would take too long; a few well-placed electrical discharges by Icarus would end Rock quickly.

The Ice Slasher might prove useful, Rock mused as he disposed of another sentry 'bot and leaped to its abandoned platform.Synthesized water inside the circuits of an electrical-energy storage robot would probably prove disastrous.However, after a moment, Rock dismissed the idea.Ice, no matter how strong, would probably fail to penetrate the double-shielding of Icarus' core generator.

So . . . that left Firestorm and Rolling Cutter.

"Oh, have you seen the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin man?"

Rock was abruptly torn from his analysis by an unnaturally high-pitched voice.Whirling around to face the possible threat, Rock was partly dismayed and partly relieved when he saw nothing.

The voice spoke again, and Rock traced it to its source; a large speakerphone several stories up in an observation bay, meant to be used by overseers who supervised repairs to the Power Induction shaft while it was dormant.

"Oh I must take the A train," the voice singsonged.Rock recognized it now, though it was changed by a strange overtone that he could not quite place.It was Icarus who spoke.Rock hastened his ascent of the tower, barely pausing as several broken power couplings sprang to life, blasting bolts of energy into the air.

Leaping and avoiding the tracking sensor robots and the rhythmic electrical discharges of broken power couplings, Rock made his way to the top of the shaft.

That, at least, was what he intended.

Halfway to the top of the Induction shaft Rock took a short rest to let his leg hydraulics cool down.It was then that he noticed that from this point upwards, nearly all of the service platforms had been blasted apart.The only way up was a rickety access ladder that had been badly damaged by plasma burns and laser fire.

"Rock, my old friend.Is that you?"Rock froze at the mention of his name by his adversary.

"What do you want?" Rock demanded as he grabbed the first rung of the ladder.He grimaced as the whole structure shook.This was likely to break under a human's weight, let alone a titanium armored android!

"Oh it is you!" the voice cackled, and then broke into gales of laughter.Had Rock been human, he would have shivered at the disturbing sound, overlaid with the voice of madness."Marvelous, just marvelous!"Icarus' voice began to grate against Rock's aural sensors."Well, are you in the mood for a game?"

"A game," Rock spat as he continued up the ladder."And just what did you have in mind?"

"Anybody who intrudes on Elecman's domain," said the voice, "must escape the gleaming tunnel of death."The latter part was said with such a melodramatic flair that Rock rolled his eyes.

"Gleaming Tunnel of Death," he muttered."Sounds great."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Elecman replied from the speakerphone."It makes the chase so much more fun.If you survive, I'll see you at the top, Rock!"

"Your circuitry's screwed," Rock said under his breath.

He had been so intent on climbing the ladder and his short conversation with Elecman that the android didn't notice the pale green orb at first.

To his right, a green sphere slowly descended, its anti-gravity engine slowly thrumming.Rock snapped his head up in alarm as it came closer.

"What in . . ."

Abruptly, two long shafts sprouted from either end of the sphere, each with a photoreceptive "eye" on the end.And just as quickly, with no warning, two bolts of electricity blasted from the apparatus.

"_Damn!"_

Rock swore as both bolts of energy slammed into him, causing him to lose his grip and fall several meters before once again establishing a firm grip on the rungs of the ladder, which shuddered dangerously at the sudden application of stress to its structure.

Taking quick aim as the thing descended up him again, Rock loosed several plasma bursts and watched with grim satisfaction as it exploded into a million pieces in midair.However, he had little time to enjoy his short victory.Looking up, he saw several more of the green orbs descending towards him.

Gathering his courage and hastening up the ladder, he methodically destroyed the remaining robots.Once at the top of the ladder, he found himself standing on a small but sturdy platform.Several meters above him and to the right was another platform, and beyond that, another.After that, he could see daylight filtering down through a hole in the ceiling.

However, he could see no way to reach either platform.

Rock doubled over as his entire system flooded with pain signals.The virus was making itself felt again, and this time, more clearly.Like a living thing crawling in his head, Rock could _feel the disruptive program corroding the hasty defenses thrown up by Dr. Light and Roll, and knew that it was only a matter of time before the virus won._

Accumulating energy and gritting his teeth, Rock released a low-level electrical shock into his brain.It would hurt like hell, but it wouldn't endanger his existence, so the Second Law would still allow him to act.

With a scream like that of a wounded animal, Rock rolled onto his side.The electrical energy coursed through his brain, destroying small, non-essential nodes and circuits.His pain circuits began to overheat, and Rock suddenly realized that if he didn't do anything to control the charge, his brain would overload, and he would suffer logic breakdown.

In human terms, the pain would drive him to insanity.

Grinding his teeth until they literally spat sparks, Rock, by sheer force of android will, batted down the pain until it was within manageable levels.However, the effort left him spent and gasping on his side.All systems screamed for energy from his already overtaxed fusion unit.As emergency power strove to compensate, Rock's nonessential functions shut down.Sight, hearing and speech were all sacrificed for a short time so that he could continue to live.

Several minutes passed while Rock writhed on the ground.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity Rock could stand, and his vision began to flicker back on, with lines of static running across the world for a few seconds.System functions returned to normal, and Rock knew that he had beaten back the virus for a little while longer.

"Now _that was amusing!"Elecman's voice floated up from below, where the speaker was situated."What's the matter Rock?Feeling sick?"The Robot Master giggled helplessly at his own joke._

Not wasting breath to reply, Rock turned to survey his surroundings once again.

"Well," Elecman continued, I think it's time to activate the Gleaming Tunnel of Death.I'll even give you a sporting chance!"

Rock felt a strong electrical current, but could not discern its origin.

With sudden clarity, he looked down . . .

. . . and at the bottom story, hazy with distance, he saw every electrical wire, power coupling and open circuit flare to life.Electricity blasted across the Power Induction shaft in lethal arcs, lighting up the entire structure in a white-hot spider's web of death.

Then the next story's circuits flared to life.

It was headed towards Rock.

"You have exactly one minute to escape the shaft before you get roasted," Elecman said gleefully."Don't disappoint me."

Looking vainly for an avenue of escape, though he had already searched, Rock cursed inwardly.

Above his head, as if in answer to his prayers, came a familiar sound.

With a hiss and a bass sound so deep in was almost subsonic, Rock watched a block appear in midair.Once again, his sensors went crazy trying to figure it out; it looked as if it were made of glass and quartzite with steel laced into the structure.This type, though, was different than the kind he had encountered in New Shirewick.Instead of being transparent, it looked like a piece of brass.

Not pausing to praise good fortune, Rock gathered his legs under him and leaped as high as he could, landing with jarring impact in the block.Was this Elecman's "sporting chance"?Rock leaped immediately as another block appeared to his right, and, without hesitation, continued to the solid ledge on the wall.

A strange snapping sound permeated by an ultra-low growl alerted Rock to the fact that the web of energy had almost reached his position.He had, at best, maybe a half of a minute remaining to him.

Quickly climbing the nearest access ladder to the next story up, Rock could see a ladder several meters away.It was out of jumping distance, even if he had the time to properly gauge his power and make a perfect jump.

However, his auto-trajectory calculator confirmed that he could never make a horizontal leap of that distance from a standing position.

The base of Rock's feet began to tingle through his titanium boots, and he knew time was running out.

Out of nowhere, a block materialized with its distinctive _voomph sound._

Rock immediately stepped on to it, and then to the next once it appeared.

Not waiting to see if another would appear, Rock jumped and caught the bottom rung of the ladder.He pulled himself hastily hand-over-hand to the top and out into the fresh air.Quickly, he rolled to the side and ran as quickly as he could away from the hole from where he had emerged.

Mere seconds after he did so, a massive pillar of electricity blasted out, catching on anything metal nearby.The ground itself crackled menacingly with the almost living presence of electrical current, and Rock hurriedly moved away from it, lest he be caught in the backlash.

Waiting a few moments to make sure that he was now safe, Rock proceeded back to the lip of the shaft.On the surface, the huge cylindrical shape of the tower itself was tangent to the circular opening of the shaft.From there, Rock would have to climb up the side, over the long drop he had just emerged from until he reached a point at which he could get inside the actual tower itself.

Seeing no point in wasting time, the blue-armored android swung himself onto the nearest escape ladder and climbed up.It was not long before he reached the first ledge, and found himself staring straight into a long, deep shaft like the one from which he had just emerged.

The drop from where he stood was easily almost half a mile, which was more than sufficient to kill him if he were to lose his balance.Far below, in the distance-misted depths of the shaft, Rock's optical sensors could detect electrical discharges like the ones he had already encountered.

It was not the lethal drop that held his attention, however.

What held Rock's gaze were six blocks, floating in the middle of the air in seemingly random order.With no support visible to any range of light that Rock was capable of detecting, they were a mystery.However, no matter how strange they were, they seemed to be the only way across to the access ladder that hung several meters away and led further up the tower.

Rather than ponder the enigma, Rock took a short jump and landed on the nearest of the floating blocks.It didn't so much as budge under his weight, and Rock suppressed his curiosity.Measuring carefully, he leaped again, and soon found himself on the block below the ladder.

Turning back, Rock found his mystery solved.On the side of the wall he had just left was a large electromagnetic apparatus that held the blocks in place in mid-air.It was a design often used in large buildings, as a precaution against entire floors collapsing.

Rock jumped and grabbed hold of the ladder.

For the next several floors, Rock found himself repeating the same action over and over; climb the ladder, avoid the live wires, and keep climbing.After the fifteenth such story, he arrived at a small landing covered with rubble.Rock recognized it; it was the entrance to the large electromagnetic portion of the plant, that was usually comprised of several hundred electromagnetic super-conductive coils.

Sudden inspiration struck Rock, and he lifted the two large boulders blocking the main entrance and flung them over the side of the building.If he could find a super-conductive EM coil, maybe he'd be able to perform an emergency surgery on himself and get the Magnet Beam working.

Sure enough, several loose super-conductive EM coils littered the ground.Finding one that was in good repair, Rock picked it up and moved back out of the broken room.Sitting cross-legged and acutely aware of how little time had had to complete this operation, Rock concentrated.

It was like shifting his hand into plasma-buster configuration.He concentrated and focused the energy from his matter-synthesis module in his upper arm.Soon, the armor melted away, revealing his circuitry underneath, and the small space left open for the EM coil.

Rock quickly placed the coil inside, secured the necessary wires, and let the hole in his arm close.To make sure that his system was still functioning, he ran a few quick self-diagnostics.Aside from the virus eating at his sanity and functionality, he seemed to be in perfect working order, Rock thought wryly.

Not quite trusting the diagnostic, Rock manually switched from weapon to weapon, to make sure that he was still capable of using his fully array of weapons.From silver and green to silver and grey to gold and crimson to silver and blue to silver and brown, and back to his normal colors, his armor shifted as he activated each weapon.

"Huh," he snorted."Maybe I should've been 'Rainbow Man' instead of Rockman."

Brushing aside his small jest, he continued up the tower . . .

*****

"I've found it," Dr. Light said, rubbing his temples.

Roll looked up from her work on Rock's next enhancement."You what?"

Dr. Light gestured to a red glowing dot on the holographic globe that floated in the air before him."I found Dr. Wily's fortress.It's in the Andes Mountains."

"Good!Yes!" Snap crowed from behind.He had become something of a fixture in the Light household for the past few days, turning away reporters, going on errands to buy components, etc..Roll had declared the Australian a Godsend."Now Rockman can go trash Dr. Wily!"

"No he can't," Roll corrected."He can trash Dr. Wily's guardians.If he hurts Dr. Wily, his own programming will kill him."She said it with such stark bleakness that Snap took a step back.

"I didn't mean that he should--"

"Oh, hell."

All conversation stopped at Dr. Light's curse.

"What is it?" Roll and Snap asked in unison, moving towards the roboticist.

Dr. Light punched a few controls, and a section of the globe enlarged itself until it was holographic image of Skull Castle."This is from one of our video satellites," Dr. Light explained."The damn thing would have been impossible to find without Roll's suggestion of analyzing the control chips from the neutralized Robot Masters."

Roll lowered her head, accepting the compliment."So what's the problem?"

"That."Dr. Light pointed to a dark line outside of the fortress.

At first, Roll thought it was a cloud.But as she looked closer, a numbness gripped her circuits."It's a siege," she said."The HSL is trying to besiege Wily's castle?!"

"Looks like that," Snap conceded.

"That's crazy!They'll be torn to ribbons by the robots!Wily won't have any compunctions about--"Roll stopped in mid-rant as a small golden speck detached itself from the fortress and floated towards the army camped outside.

Without warning, several white-hot bursts of plasma blasted from the golden speck.The hologram image was too fuzzy for Roll to clearly discern the details, but the effect was immediate.Several anti-aircraft missiles launched from the ground, intent on their target; the golden speck.

"It's Wily," Roll realized as she augmented her vision."Dr. Wily is in that flying machine!"

She voiced no concern for his safety; after all, the missiles seemed hardly a threat.His gold-brass colored mech dispensed each of them with well-aimed plasma shots before any of the missiles could score a hit.

Dr. Light shook his head."Wily's going to kill them all unless somebody can stop this madness."

"Yeah," Roll said acerbically."_Somebody.I just hope Rock is up to it.This virus-guard," she held up a newly-completed chip, "will help repel the virus, but it won't destroy it."_

Snap shook his head."It just don't seem fair," he muttered.

"It isn't," Roll answered.

*****

The LighTech trash compactor robot took another hop towards Rock.

The ground literally shook with the impact of the titanic robot's descent, and cracks appeared in the structure of the long platform upon which Rock stood.Calculating quickly, Rock realized to his dismay that it would only take another two jumps by the robot to dislodge the already weakened infrastructure of the tower's eighty-fifth story floor and send Rock tumbling to his almost certain demise.

Attempting to go around the robot would take too much time; already Rock had wasted another precious hour of life in jumping, blasting and ducking his way through the twisted maze of rubble and live wires that comprised the remains of the World Power Plant.Although thankfully there had been no further dialogue between himself and Elecman, Rock's anxiety relays still threatened to overload his emotions circuit board.

Only a direct charge towards the robot would give Rock the ghost of a chance he needed to arrive to do battle with Elecman with enough energy to properly function.Although trash-compacting 'bots were doggedly single-minded in their tasks, it was easy to outsmart them, so Rock was fairly sure that if he got too close to the machine for its optical sensors to detect him, then it would forget about him.

Of course, he reminded himself curtly, there was always the chance that Dr. Wily or one of his robotic assistants had modified this particular robot to be able to sense object below its line of sight.In that case, a direct charge would be highly foolish, if not openly suicidal.

"No time for debates," he growled to himself.

Detecting sound, the trash-compactor robot took another leap towards Rock, this time flying high up in the air before beginning its inexorable descent.

"Dammit!"Rock rolled and jumped to his feet as fast as he could in an attempt to reach the access ladder to the next story up.His calculations had supposed that the robot would jump as it had already been jumping, and had not accounted for the possibility of the extremely high jump it made now.

The trash compactor smashed to the floor.Its descent was accompanied by a thunderclap-loud crack, which Rock knew to be the main support beams for the already gutted level.His internal laser-gyroscope indicated a swift tilt in the floor's angle, he could see with dream-like slowness that the entire floor was turning at a forty-five degree angle, dumping the hapless trash-compactor 'bot off the edge.

Rock leaped as high as he could, with what little force he could muster from pushing against the falling floor.Gritting his teeth, he extended his left arm as far as he could . . .

And grabbed the ledge of the next story's outer wall with his titanium-gloved fingertips. Rock breathed a quick sigh of relief, followed by a wry smile at how human his reaction had been.First he was swearing, then dreaming, and now sighing with relief.

In the past week, he had become more human-like than he would have ever imagined possible within his short lifetime.However, he reflected darkly, if the war and tragedy he had been forced to participate in had been the price of such humanity, he would gladly have gone without it.

_Stop philosophizing, you fool._

Rock shook himself out of his train of thought and pulled himself up to and over the edge of the floor.He was now on the eighty-sixth floor of the tower; the final one before the spire of the tower, at the top of which Elecman surely resided.

"Okay.Weapons check," he muttered to himself as he headed for the locked double-doors that opened into the stairwell leading to the top of the spire.He ran a quick diagnostic of himself to make sure that the virus hadn't penetrated any important systems, and then checked to make sure that his matter-synthesis unit had enough operation energy to be able to function properly.

Cursing inwardly, he found that the virus had corrupted some of the molecular-structure synthesis node in his module.While all auto-repair systems were working full time on the problem as their top priority, Rock was still doubtful that he'd be able to use either the Rolling Cutter or the Ice Slasher for several minutes.

And he couldn't afford to wait for those minutes.

A few quick blasts from his plasma buster opened the door to the stairwell, and Rock was faced with another problem.While it was obvious that there once _had been stairs leading up the fifteen story shaft, it was just as obvious that they had been destroyed._

Only a single, long ladder led up to the observation room at the apex of the tower.

And, as Rock had suspected there would be, several broken power couplings spat deadly electrical bolts across the gap which he would need to ascend.Well, nobody had ever promised Rock that any of this would be easy.

"Or enjoyable," he muttered to himself as he began his climb.

He managed to negotiate the long shaft without sustaining any hits, but he had come close to being hit by the flashing ribbons of energy so many times that his emergency-energy reactor had nearly short circuited in trying to supply him with extra power.

In human terms, his nerves were shot.

Rock grinned bitterly.Yes, he surely _had become very human._

Taking several deep breaths and making sure that he was as ready as he could be, Rock pushed open the hatch that led to the observation room.

Immediately, he was lifted off his feet and thrown several meters backwards by a powerful electric surge.Rock crashed to the ground in front of two large boulder-like pieces of rubble.His emergency systems all screamed for attention and extra power, and Rock knew without checking that his energy operating meter would read at down to one-third operating power.

"Wooo ha ha ha ha ha!"You should have seen the look on your face!"Rock jumped to his feet and dodged between the boulders, ignoring his complaining hydraulics.Elecman's taunt rang across the room and echoed across the double-shielded walls."I wish I had a camera!"

Not wasting breath on a reply, Rock hunkered down.That blast had been enough to nearly overload all of his systems; he would have to be extremely cautious now.His matter-synthesis module was still nearly a minute way from being completely repaired, and the process had been retarded by the damage he had just sustained.

"What's the matter Rock?" Elecman's voice snapped, suddenly angry."Don't you want to come out and play?If it's hide-and-seek you want, I'll be happy to oblige you!"

Straining for a view of his adversary, Rock batted down panic as the black-and-crimson armored androbot leaped into the air and loosed several blasts of energy in Rock's direction.Rock only caught a glimpse between the boulders of Elecman, his face half-obscured by the lightning bolt eyemask he wore.

The energy bolts hit the boulders, and Rock dropped and rolled to avoid the shards of stone which exploded next to him, scattering in all directions.Taking advantage of the momentary cover the cloud of dust provided him. Rock shot several quick plasma bursts in the general direction he calculated Elecman to be.

A few grunts and a thudding sound indicated that at least a few had connected.

As the cloud cleared, Rock found himself leaping--almost out of what he would have called instinct in a human.No sooner did his feet leave the ground than a sizzling bolt of lightning hissed past the place he had just occupied.Tendrils of electricity reached out and snapped at his boots.If Rock hadn't already been in the air, he would have jumped.

"That," said Elecman in a totally deadpan voice, "Was foolish."

Rock landed, tensed and ready for battle.Elecman stood several meters away from him, apparently unscathed, but obviously annoyed."I don't know what you pulled on the rest of the Generals to defeat them," Elecman mused, "but it will avail you nothing here.This is _my kingdom!"_

"You're insane," Rock spat, and shot several more plasma bursts in an arc.Elecman leaped high in the air, easily avoiding all but the highest-aimed of the plasma bullets.Noiselessly, he retaliated with coruscating ropes of burning energy.

With nothing between himself and the bolts to draw the charge away, Rock leaped as high as he could and hoped for the best.The sensation-overload in his foot circuits alerted him to the fact that although he had avoided the brunt of the attack, a few more close calls like that would be his end.

"Insane, is it?" Elecman landed and grinned like a mad hare."Yes, I suppose it looks that way to you.It certainly did to them."He gestured around the room, and what Rock had at first taken to be just black scorch marks on the floor turned out to be--upon closer inspection--bones blackened by heat and fire.

"You've been taking lessons from Fireman," Rock said, trying to sound noncommittal."But he died just as easily as you will."

"Not as easy as you think perhaps," Elecman chortled.With several acrobatic leaps interspersed with a quick succession of bolt-fire, he crowed."You see?I can fly!"

Rock, busy dodging the shots and trying desperately to keep ahead of the pattern, managed to score a few good hits on the Robot Master before Elecman landed once again, immediately shooting off another round of electric death.

The raven-haired android dropped to the floor and was relieved to hear the soft _ping that indicated that his matter synthesis module was repaired.Switching to the Rolling Cutter, he smirked.If he could get two or three of these lodged in Elecman's system, the energy would surely overload him._

He hurled the first one without warning.

Elecman fell to his knees and screeched with inhuman rage as the first of the circular scissors-blades slashed deep into his torso.The lightning he had been about to release upon Rock turned back on him, attracted by the extra metal.The renegade Robot Master twitched involuntarily as the energy coursed through his system, overloading several unimportant subsystems.

"You--you _hurt me!"Elecman's eyes narrowed."Now you're dead!"_

Rock had already fired off another Rolling Cutter, and succeeded in striking his enemy again before Elecman could fully rise to his feet.Overconfident, he stepped closer, sure that the next hit would be the finishing blow.

With a roar of anger, Elecman sprang forward and toppled Rock.Sitting on the blue-armored android's chest, he raised his hands in the air."Never screw with the King of the World!" he hissed.

A subsonic _hiss proclaimed the arrival of another Rolling Cutter in Rock's hand.Before Elecman could release his electricity into Rock's frame, the Robot Hunter slashed upwards, cutting off Elecman's hands._

Elecman fell backwards, looking with horror at his maimed arms.

Drawing out the moment for the sake of those who had died at this mad-robot's hands, Rock summoned another blade."The problem with having wings," he said quietly, "is that they can be clipped."

"Bastard!"

Elecman's last word hung on the air long after he had overloaded and exploded.His torso flew across the room as his lower body disintegrated.Rock took several deep breaths to recharge.That had been too close.

He approached the blasted torso of Elecman, whose head had been torn off as is flew past an up-jutting steel beam that had been dislodged from the ceiling during the fight.Feeling like a grave robber, Rock rooted around in the torso until he found the main control unit and removed the Control Chip.

"Thirty-two hours left," Rock muttered quietly.

He looked a final time at his dead enemy--once his best friend among the Robot Masters--and frowned.Sorrow swept through him: a bleak, cold wind that he could almost literally feel inside.This was no way to live.

But it was better than dying.

"Dying," Rock muttered.A few weeks ago, he would have referred to it as deactivation.

With the last of the Robot Masters defeated, Rock knew he could finally rest for a few days.Dr. Wily would be hiding from the authorities now that his power was all but broken, and Dr. Light could destroy the virus which plagued Rock.

It was over.

Turning the thought around in his head, Rock almost smiled.He could live a normal life now.

The hawk-eyed android disappeared in a line of blue-white fire.


	11. League

"Let me tell you something, rookies

_"Let me tell you something, rookies.The first attack on Sigma's Fortress was the worst fighting I'd ever seen.Never underestimate the power of robots and repliroids to hold off an army; even from a poorly-designed citadel.It was a bitch, and no mistake.Now listen up, while I tell you some tricks, I learned . . ."_

--excerpt from a recording of training classes taught by Irregular Hunter Mac

**Chapter 10**

**League**

The bomb exploded high overhead, momentarily blinding Monique.

In her pirated armor and buster look-alike, Monique Jansen was virtually invincible.Why, then, did she feel so helpless?She couldn't even remember what she had been sent here for.Blinking her eyes hard and beating back the pain that threatened to explode her temples, she took a ragged breath.

It had begun when she arrived in New Denver.As far as she could tell, she had been perfectly fine before that.But as soon as she teleported down to . . .

What was she thinking?

"Damn," the assassin muttered listlessly."Getting senile already, girl?Pull yourself together!"

Denver.Something about New Denver . . .

Try as she might, Monique couldn't quite grasp the thread of the thought she had been pursuing moments ago.Exasperated, she gave up and returned to the business of staying alive.She had long since completed her mission of striking terror into the populace of both New Denver and Keliva as "Rockman."However, something had not been quite right.

After she teleported to Keliva, she vaguely remembered killing a few people from the media before heading for the city proper and beginning the slaughter there.She had learned in New Denver--to her delight--that conventional bullets merely flattened themselves impotently against the body armor she wore.Knowing that had made her job in Keliva more fun.

However, as she was resting from her first attack, she had overheard on the radio that Rockman--the _real Rockman had arrived and destroyed Elecman, the Robot Master in charge of this city._

The people of Keliva, though easily deceived at first, were not stupid.It took them very little time to realize that Monique had been an impostor, and from that conclusion sprang murderous anger.Suddenly, what had begun as shooting fish in a barrel for Monique became a race for her life.

Armed with armor-piercing laser cannons and other black-market energy weapons, the citizens of Keliva had declared open war upon Monique, and the twenty-four hour manhunt had begun.The highly-trained assassin would normally have had no problem, but she couldn't seem to get her thoughts together, and every time she tried to use the teleporter, it malfunctioned.

Not, Monique decided, that using it would do her much good.Whatever assurances that lying Brazilian Juan Iago had given her of the teleporter's safety had been proven false when Monique first landed in New Denver with a screaming headache and blurred vision.

If she lived through this, Monique would feed the filthy bastard his own lying tongue.

Now that she had found a temporary refuge in an abandoned hotel, Monique had a few breaths worth of time to disassemble the teleporter and take a look at it.A morass of wires and microchips greeted her eyes as she removed the faceplate of the complicated device.

"Bloody hell."Monique rubbed her temples.It would take forever to fix this damnable mess, and she had a few minutes of respite at the most before her hunters once again drove her from safety and back into the dangerous war zone of Keliva.

Concentrating on what she could remember of electronics of servomech design, the blue-armored assassin carefully removed a burnt microchip and examined the space underneath.The contact surface seemed to be fine, so it was just the microchip that had been damaged, as far as she could see.

Turning the tiny chip over and scrutinizing the bottom, she found a small ray of hope in the form of six silver symbols:

NKB-56m

The chip was of a common line that could be found in many household objects.The 56m type of microchips was a type often used in televid devices; as an assassin, it had been Monique's business to memorize all the components of communication devices so that she would know which one to remove.After all, a victim who has no contact with the outside world is by far more helpless than one who has.

Now if only she could find a . . .

What was she thinking?

Monique shook her head.Damn this headache!It made concentration impossible.If she couldn't collect her thoughts, she'd be better off dead, anyway!The assassin noticed her fist was clenched, and she relaxed it.

Something tiny clattered to the floor.

A microchip?

Ah, yes!The teleporter component!She needed to find a televid in this hotel, and maybe then she could escape from this wretched pit of death.Then . . .

Her scattered thoughts focused into a single burning point.

Then she would seek out the HSL and kill every last one of the bastards.

*****

It was unusually quiet when Rock arrived.

He had half-expected Roll to be waiting for him in the lab with joyous greetings.He had dared hope that Snap and Bess might be there, grinning from ear to ear, waiting to tell him that the virus could be neutralized.

He had even hoped that Dr. Light would be waiting with a virus neutralization disc in his hand.Even the confused clamor of the mass media would have been welcome in the face of what greeted Rock upon his return.

The lab stood empty.Fluorescent lights in the ceiling cast harsh blades of light against work tables and the walls.One of the lights in the corner had burned out, and dark shadows stood starkly at weird angles against the otherwise sterile brightness of the room.

Rock's brows drew together, and he slumped against the nearest table.The thermal output level of his critical operating circuits was still abnormally high due to the dangerous amount of raw electricity to which he had been exposed during his battle with the insane Elecman.His auto-repair systems had settled from constant alarm down to an angry buzz as they drank up all of the reserve energy his emergency generator could supply.

His internal gyroscopic lasers flickered as their power was sapped by his auto-repair circuits, and a wave of dizziness assaulted him.Gripping the table more firmly, the hawk-eyed android worked his way towards the door.Irritation born of discomfort and impatience made him grind his teeth as he struggled to make himself stand upright.

Where was everybody?

Rock gripped the doorknob and turned. Unsure whether it was the fault of the virus or overload from the battle with Elecman, Rock blinked dumbly at the doorknob.He had miscalculated his own strength and twisted it off of the door.

Angry now, and suffering from the effects of the eroding virus, Rock pushed the door open, ignoring the soft _snap that signified the demise of the rest of the doorknob's fixture.As he shuffled down the hallway, he banged his shin on the edge of a table._

Pain lanced through his leg and Rock collapsed.A creeping, unclean feeling crawled through his brain, and he suddenly knew with horrified certainty that the virus had located the circuit bundle that interpreted various signals from exterior sensors and turned them into physical sensation.

For a nanosecond before the virus indulged itself in overloading Rock's pain sensors, he felt entirely helpless and vulnerable, and wondered if he had finally found what it felt like to be entirely human.

And then it began.

*****

Snap dozed in the library on an old, ripped-up overstuffed armchair that Dr. Light had provided from somewhere.Bess snored softly on his lap, and Julie was off watching Roll work.The Australian rubbed an itch on his nose in irritation.Rock had not yet returned from the battle with the Robot Master in Keliva, and everybody in the house had been getting edgy.

Dr. Light had taken the virus-guard developed by Roll and improved upon it a bit while waiting for his "son" to return from battle, and now, at Roll's insistence, sat in the kitchen grumbling to himself and munching on cold summer sausage slices.

With nothing of import to do, Snap had settled down for a quick nap wile waiting for his android friend to arrive.The early spring rain beat a steady, lulling pattern on the window panes.Snap took a deep breath and sank further into peaceful sleep.

A terrifying, unearthly scream made Snap sit bolt upright, and Bess awoke with a start.

The windows in the library all simultaneously bent outwards and shattered with an abrupt, wrenching sound.Snap covered Bess's ears and tried to bury his own head in the overstuffed cushions of the armchair.

The horrible wailing went on and on, never stopping for breath, and seeming to get only louder.It wasn't until Snap had successfully pushed his head in between two cushions and had found some brief respite from the awful noise that he realized that he recognized the voice.

_Rock?!_

Now all human semblance left the voice, and it became a shrieking stream of ultra-high beeps and twisted, metallic grinding, so unbearably intense that Snap's stomach started to churn and his muscles locked.

Unable to move for sheer terror, Snap shuddered.How was it possible for a machine to feel pain--much less so intensely?He gritted his teeth and forced himself to pull his head free.Covering his ears with both hands, he leaned down to Bess and yelled.

"Stay here!I'm going to see!"

Bess nodded, and covered her ears.The child's eyes were so wide that Snap could see the whites of her eyes all the way around her irises.He didn't begrudge his daughter her fear one bit; the desperation and pain in the android's cry was so powerful that it might have been organic.The sound of it awoke a primal, animal fear within Snap's own brain.

He turned and dashed down the stairs, hands still pressed against his ears.He missed a step and, unable to grab the railing, stumbled the remainder of the way down.Heedless of his own hurts, the Australian continued on until he reached the source of the noise.

Dr. Light, wearing the type of headphones used in industrial shops to block out the sounds of loud machinery, knelt over Rock holding a microchip in a pair of needle nose pliers in one hand and a micolaser saw in the other.

The red, cylindrical robot that Dr. Light called Eddie stood next to the roboticist, its cargo area jammed with oil-slick nuts, bolts and wires.It was spattered with a dark liquid that was leaking from the top of Rock's head, where Dr. Light's laser saw had cut away a section of synthetic scalp to operate.

Roll sat astride her counterpart's chest, pressing down on Rock's head.She had several deep gashes on her left arm, with wires, cables and syntheflesh shredded like paper.Her jaw was clenched so hard that Snap could see the muscle-cables straining against the pale syntheflesh of her chin.

As for Rock . . .

He was virtually unrecognizable.He shook spasmodically, legs kicking. Had not Roll's knees been pinning her brother's elbows to the floor, his arms would also be flailing; the deep cracks in the floor attested to that.His armor had been blackened in the fight with the last Robot Master, and soot stained the floor where he lay.

His face was the worst of it, though.

It was as if some demon from hell had crawled forth from the black and burning depths and inhabited the body of Rockman.The android's muscle cables tensed and twitched so erratically, it looked as though some obscene living _thing was moving beneath his skin._

His mouth was wide open and blasting forth that horrible, terrifying noise.

And his eyes blazed lapis fire, laced with suffering.Dark coolant leaked out from around the edges of his eye sockets, looking like nothing so much as blood.

Snap blanched and took a step backwards.

Dr. Light jammed the pliers into the top of Rock's head and twisted, inserting the microchip.In his coolant-splattered lab coat, he looked like a mad doctor from an old horror movie cutting apart a bleeding corpse.Snap half expected him to raise his arms and shout "it's alive!"

Instantly, Rock's body stopped twitching, and the relentless scream trailed off into silence.

Not quite silence, Snap realized after a moment.Starved for fuel, Rock's fusion generator was forcing him to breathe, and the quick, ragged sobs that broke from the android's throat wrenched Snap's heart.

Roll's tense whisper was a blasphemy against the morbid stillness that had suddenly settled upon the area."Damn you, Wily."

The android woman stood and looked at her left arm--ruined below her elbow joint.Snap could tell by the way it hung limply at her side that all power to it had been cut.He realized after a moment that she must have been forcing power through the half-disintegrated circuits in order to hold her brother down, and that it must have hurt immensely.

He must have been staring, for Roll looked at him and then back down at her arm, rather self-consciously."It's nothing," she muttered.Grimly, like a doctor who is still not sure her patient will survive, she bent over and hoisted Rock by his waist with her one good arm.

Dr. Light stood slowly.The blood had drained from his face, and his eyes were dull.Had his hands not been shaking so violently, he could have been mistaken for a cadaver.He blinked twice and then spoke.

"Get him to the lab.We can still repair his neural net if we hurry.That virus damn near wiped out all of his motor-control circuits."He passed a hand in front of his eyes, as if to ward off a ghost, and then stalked after Roll, wiping his hands on his jacket.Eddie trundled after.

Snap took a step forward.

"Can I help?Do you--"He suddenly realized that he would probably be more of a hindrance than anything else in such delicate work."Do you need me to carry anything?"

Dr. Light turned back and smiled wearily."No.But if you are familiar enough with the IBN-2341 computer series, you can help access his backup logs so we can reconstruct his circuitry."

Snap nodded once and followed.

*****

Finally, it stopped.

Rock could only lie inert while the remains of his emergency systems forced his body to breathe air so that his internal fusion chamber could gather fuel.The pain had been so intense that he was sure he would die.In truth, he had longed for deactivation after the first half-minute of it, and it had taken almost five minutes for Dr. Light and Roll to perform their miraculously quick surgery.

While in his pain-induced frenzy, Rock had barely noticed that the virus had spread to encompass more of his cybernetic brain, and that he had been thrashing like a madman.His visual sensors recorded with damning clarity his own hands tearing the flesh from his sister's arm while she held him down.

The heat generated by his over reactive circuits was quickly killing the android.In fact, it would have been merely fourteen more seconds until the malfunction caused his generator to overload and turn the lab and several blocks around it into a smoking, radioactive rubble.Rock wondered if Roll and Dr. Light had known.

For what seemed an eternity--for his internal chronometer had been destroyed by the virus--Rock hung in a hazy limbo.With no way to sense the passing of time, the voices and sounds he heard, and even his own thoughts, all swam together in a disconcerting mishmash.He could barely discern which were his thoughts, and which were words spoken by others.

His optical scanning unit made everything into a multicolored blur, and he felt as if he were burning up.The sensation was worse than when he had fought Fireman; the Robot master's attacks had come from without, while _this heat came from within.Rock could feel his own body only as a network of dull aches and threads of fire._

Unable to lose "consciousness" and slip into recharge mode, Rock endured in silence; _anything was better than the agony of before._

And suddenly, he was aware again.

Time collapsed from its all-encompassing nothingness into rational seconds, minutes, hours.Rock could feel the reassuring picoseconds ticking away in his newly-repaired chronometer, and wondered how long he had been under repair.

Double-checking the new time entry with his last recorded time "awake," he frowned.

Eight hours, 43 minutes.

Rock sat up and looked around.Dr. Light, Roll, Julie and Bess were all in the room, staring anxiously at him.Expecting the worst, he ran a self-diagnostic program to see what kind of shape he was in.

Surprisingly, not only were all of his primary systems operating well within green specifications, but a quick check of his weapons submenu revealed that the "Thunder Beam" had been added to his arsenal.For a split second, he wondered who had made up the names for his weapons.

Rock swung his feet over the edge of the table and grinned reassuringly at his audience.

"I'm all right," he said.

The harsh, croaking sound of his own voice made him start.A check of his vocal processors confirmed that his screaming had shorted out several transistors and blown two of the four microspeakers which comprised his "vocal cords."The remaining two were badly damaged and the loss of information transmitted to them via broken circuits resulted in a degradation of sound.

In short--he had screamed himself hoarse.

Everybody in the room broke into relieved grins, and Snap slapped him on the back.

Dr. Light sighed wearily and smiled.Leaning on the table beside his "son," he spoke."We were afraid we'd lost you.Something you did while in Keliva accelerated the virus' growth, and we had to totally reroute most of your primary functions while we installed a virus guard and repaired your circuits with back-up information from your blueprints."

Julie grinned."Dad was the one who read them off of the computer, weren't you, Dad?"

Snap shrugged and looked sheepish. "It was little enough I could do."

"Thank you," Rock said.He frowned after a moment."I had to burn away some of my nonessential circuitry to fight the virus in Elecman's tower.Perhaps that . . . ?"

Dr. Light nodded."If you destroyed nonessential circuits that the virus was occupied with, then that may well have been the catalyst for it to move up to more important systems."Noticing Rock's troubled look, he held up his hands."I'm not saying it was the wrong decision; you did the best thing you could under the circumstances."

"No, that's not what was bothering me," Rock answered."It's just that you said 'virus guard.'I take it that the virus is still within my system?"

Roll cleared her throat."Yes, well . . . your primary systems will be safe for another twenty-four hours.However, the virus has retreated back to its original place in the module where the Three Laws are stored.It's gradually eating away at the defenses."

"I see."

Roll clenched her hands and anxiety."If only we could somehow make it leave--burn away that section of your brain."

Snap's face screwed up in confusion as Roll spoke."What's that mean?"

"The guard program I wrote is a virus-hunter.It searches out foreign programs and overwrites them with the backup data from Rock's neuro-computer.It traces malignant programs to their source and destroys them at the root.Basically, it keeps the virus in place so it can't spread.But if we could drive the virus out of its hiding place--"

It was Bess who finished."Then the good program would kill what's making Rock sick."

"Exactly."

Rock sighed."Well, talking about it won't make it happen.I suggest we stop dwelling on it and get to work. Now that I can devote my attention to this, we can get three times as much work done.Right, sis?"

Roll and Dr. Light simultaneously found spots on the wall at which to stare.

"Right?" Rock's tone of voice had changed from optimistic to insistent.

"There's a problem," Snap replied."Remember how you thought that maybe the HSL was trying to kill Dr. Wily?"Rock nodded his assent.Snap licked his lips."Well, you were right.Your si--Roll found the location of Dr. Wily's fortress by analyzing the data from the Robot Masters' chips."

"And?"

"And Skull Castle is under attack by the Human Supremacy League."Snap swallowed, unable to continue.

Dr. Light continued where the other man left off."Frankly, it's a bloodbath.There are thousands upon thousands of people hurling themselves at the walls of Skull Castle, and dying for their stupidity.Dr. Wily probably has a quarter of a million robots holed up in there, and they're killing everything in sight."

Rock's face would have paled if it were possible.Already, he felt the Prime Rule taking effect; he could not, through inaction, allow human beings to come to harm while attacking Dr. Wily.Even, he realized with a half-snarl, if those same humans would as much kill him as look at him, for the Prime Rule overrode the Second.

"Dr. Wily is taking a personal hand in the slaughter," Roll said."He has some sort of golden flying machine--looks like a flying saucer--and he's been flying out the top of his fortress from time to time and blowing people away."

Rock clenched his fist."I have to stop them."

Dr. Light's face was sad."Yes, you do.I'm sorry, but there's nobody else who can do it right now.You'll need time to recharge before you leave, but you must fight again."

The sable-haired android pondered.This would be the most dangerous assignment he'd taken yet.The Three Laws would force him to protect any human being--and there were thousands of them--from harm, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

It was a suicide mission.

As he realized what it meant, he looked back to Dr. Light.Tears had gathered in the roboticist's eyes, and a few ran down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry," he said in a broken, very old sounding voice.

Rock wanted to cry too.Why was he fighting the virus?Why were Dr. Light and Roll bothering to fix him when we was going to die in a few hours anyway?And why should he be forced to protect humans who were murderers of both humans and sentient robots?

Was it all for nothing?

He forced a small smile.Dr. Light, Roll, Snap, Bess, Julie . . . they needed to see him be strong.That was what being a hero was all about, and by God, he wasn't going to let them see him quail.

There was too much at stake for him to indulge in self-pity.

"All right, then," he said.He hoped his voice sounded firm, bold, brave."Get my armor fixed while I recharge.I've got work to do, and Dr. Wily still needs to be saved from himself."

"Rock?!" It was Roll's voice, disbelieving."Are you serious?How can you not hate Wily?"

"Just as Dr. Wily is killing the people outside, he's killing himself," Rock answered."His power is broken but for his hold in his own fortress.If he remains on this genocidal course, he'll be executed, and the Prime Rule forces me to act in prevention of that."

Roll shook her head, and then smiled ruefully."Then get some rest."

Snap exhaled loudly."You're a better person than I am," he stated."I'd just let the bastard die."His indignant yowl as Bess and Julie simultaneously pinched his ears was the last thing Rock heard before he dropped back to sleep.

His last sleep.

*****

The lead robot exploded in a brilliant red-gold flare of destruction.

A swarm of DRIM-13's disappeared within the superheated center of the explosion.The sound of their engine casings cracking and their fuel tanks exploding in the superheated air barely even carried above the roar of other numerous explosives.

Juan Iago grinned.There were a few robots who wouldn't be causing any more trouble.

His grin faded as his gaze drifted across the grisly tableau laid out before him against the bone-pale walls of Skull Castle.Like some hellish scene out of Dante's _Inferno, the sky was tinted the color of blood by smoke and the light of a thousand incendiaries.The lower sections of Skull Castle's outer walls were similarly stained dark with smoke and blood and the circulatory fluids of sentry robots._

And in between the trench where Juan hunched and the walls of Dr. Wily's fortress, there was not even walking room amongst the dead or deactivated.The blood of HSL soldiers mixed with the oil of Dr. Wily's robotic soldiers and the result was a dark, reeking substance with a thin rainbow film on it, covering the entire battlefield.

Beside Juan, James Walken glared at a line of 12-KIF's advancing over the bodies of their fallen enemies and comrades alike.The leader of HSL grimly pulled another pin from his stash of napalm-grenades and hurled it overhand just behind the line of shield-bearing robots.

Another flight of wasp-like robots buzzed overhead and dropped a line of bombs on the remaining ranks of the HSL army.Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the HSL had had been decimated, and now less than ten thousand remained, camped out on the cold, craggy mountains surrounding Skull Castle.

The memory of the first charge would haunt Walken until his death.

Confident of his army's superiority, Walken had ordered his elite heavy troops--the Executors--ahead.The Executors were a group of a hundred men and women hand-picked by James Walken.Most of them had prior military experience driving medium and heavy hovertanks during the Third World War.

With his stolen fleet of heavy bulletproof, missile resistant hover-tanks manned by his elite pilots, Walken had felt invincible.After all, each was armed with a heavy laser cannon and several high-powered machine guns with explosive rounds.It had taken little more than that to subjugate entire cities to Walken's Rule.

Nevertheless, James Walken was a cautious man, so had also sent several battalions of armored foot soldiers behind the tanks.Each foot soldier was armed with a laser pistol, a submachine gun and short-flight jet packs.In addition, each commander was equipped with ten-foot tall power armor sporting shoulder-mounted light laser cannons and a heavy plasma rifle.Such foot troops were nearly as invincible as the Executors.

How could such a front line fail to strike terror into Dr. Wily's heart?

Walken had shouted his ultimatum to Wily himself from the top of the hill beside Skull Castle: surrender and deliver himself to the judgment of the HSL, or die like a rat trapped in a cage of his own making.

Thirty seconds later, it happened.

The front wall of Skull Castle rose, revealing a frightening array of barrels.

Ten thousand laser beams and hellish walls of burning plasma engulfed the front line of the HSL army.Walken had watched, impotent and horrified, as the burning death from within the castle walls had literally melted his finest troops into slag.

The particular commander whom Walken had been watching had half-turned in a vain attempt to escape before he shrank and melted into an unrecognizable puddle of molten metal and crisped flesh.

Just like that, the Executors and their hundred million dollars' worth of tanks had disappeared.Those at the very back of the line had been given little more time to escape their comrades' fate.There was a brief reprieve before the robots came.

White with rage and humiliation, Walken had been as stone while the remainder of his front line had been decimated by hundreds of 12-KIF's, their converted plasma welders blazing with unholy power.

_Robots are the spawn of Satan.Walken had drilled that lesson into his followers until they repeated it automatically, by rote.God didn't approve of homosexuals or working mothers--neither of which was allowed in Walken's army--so why should He approve of robots, the unholiest of man's mistakes?_

Watching his best soldiers vaporized by the demons, Walken knew that there would be no doubt at all amongst his surviving disciples now that robots should not--_must not--be allowed to exist in his New World Order under God._

Since that first horrific encounter, Walken had played a strike and fade game against Dr. Wily's army of satanic automatons.It was a tactic that Walken could see, after several hours, was still sustaining heavy losses.At least, however, it was better than a direct charge.

"Juan," he said, his voice hoarse.

"Yes sir?"

Walken licked his lips."Order another air strike, before he comes back out."

Juan internally cringed.There was no question as to who "he" was.Eight times now, Dr. Wily had appeared to wreak havoc personally.Heralded by a high-pitched whine laden with an electronic vibrato, the war mech appeared first as a nearly indistinguishable gold and crimson speck above the furthest ramparts of Skull Castle.

The lower chassis of the body was plated with some type of laser-reflecting brassy metal, its smooth, rounded contours interrupted only by small laser and plasma-shooting ports in a perfect circle around the perimeter of the ship.The upper part was a blood-colored shiny metal that had so far confounded any attacks made from the amassed HSL army.

A flying saucer, or so it appeared.

And like a nightmare out of some twisted cartoon, the flying device periodically emerged from depths of the grisly death's head fortress squatted upon the craggy mountainside.From Walken and Juan's vantage point, they could only see flashes of light and color emanating from the machine.However, those few who had been unfortunate enough to suffer the attacks of Wily's mech and lived to tell the tale described horrible fiery death of every type blasting from the machine as it swooped low over the heads of the front lines.

"Juan!" James Walken's crisp, authoritative voice broke the Brazilian from his reverie.

"Sorry, sir!"Juan bit his lip, chagrined, and quickly activated the comm device on his watch."Sixth and seventh flight units, prepare to make another strike."

From the other end of the link, a voice cracked with fatigue and fear replied."Sir?But we've already lost half of our--"

Juan frowned."I'm aware of the status of your units, commander.The orders stand."He took a deep breath, as if sympathizing with the doomed man."I understand that it looks hopeless, but we have few tricks to bring that crazy old fool down."

"Understood, sir.We'll strike from the east, where we've already damaged a portion of the outer wall."Hissing static signified the end of the conversation.

"Well done," Walken said, and straightened his shoulders."Prepare for the final assault."

Juan paled."Sir?"

"We're running out of time, Juan," Walken answered."If we continue at this rate, we'll meet our end in hours.Believe me, this is not a suicide run.If we assemble the rest of the HSL and charge the west wall _en masse while Dr. Wily is distracted at the east side of his fortress, then we'll surely break through."_

The Brazilian second-in-command of the HSL thought for a moment.From what he remembered of Skull castle's interior, the outer wall encompassed a large, ring-like courtyard with relatively few places a guard could hide.It was the center structure that was densely fortified.Walken's plan certainly had merit . . .

"Yes sir," Juan answered, and ordered the charge.

*****

"Rock . . ."

Rock looked from side to side.The stone under his feet was broken by weather and heat, but not by the touch of life.In fact, as far as Rock could see, the immense landscape was barren, consisting only of sun-paled sand and wind-worn rocks jumbled in disorderly heaps.

The sun was too large.

The android shook his head. This had to be a dream.

"Rock . . . why do you hide from me?"

It wasn't quite a voice that spoke to him--more of a feeling that made itself known in his brain.

_How can I be hidden in this__ wasteland?Rock wondered._

"Rock, show yourself."The feeling was now more insistent.

For a moment, Rock considered, ignoring the voice and waking up, for now he was certain that this was a dream.However, its presence intrigued him enough to answer.

"I'm here.Who--_what--are you?"His own voice was eaten up by the vast emptiness._

Though the voice didn't answer, Rock's summoning elicited an immediate response.

A strong wind howled out of the sky and swirled the sand in a man-sized vortex a few meters in front of Rock.In a matter of seconds, the tail of the vortex had split and solidified into a pair of sandy legs, and the top had formed into a headless torso.

The wind died down, and a body stood in front of Rock.Garbed entirely in black, from the combat boots and parachute pants to the bomber jacket and biker gauntlets, the entire body was a study in darkness.

Out of nothing, the head materialized.A shock of wild black hair topped a pale face half-obscured by a large, dark pair of sunglasses that entirely hid the eyes beneath.

It was whistling.

A deep-seated sense of dread suffused Rock.He told himself that none of this was real, that it was only a series of random electrical impulses in his cybernetic brain interpreted as visual and aural information . . . but nothing he could do would make him wake up.

"Hello, Rock."

It was his own voice.

"What are you?" Rock clenched his fist, tried to shift it into buster configuration.Nothing happened.He stared dumbly at his hands and then back up at his dark-clad doppelganger.

"Oh, that won't work here," the doppelganger said, hefting a large beheading axe.Rock winced as the memory of another dream struck him with almost physical force."You can't shoot yourself, Rock.The Second Law forbids it."

"Myself . . . what are you babbling about?"

The doppelganger frowned."For having a superhuman brain, you can be organically slow sometimes.Don't you get it?I'm you, Rock."

Rock shook his head."Impossible.I am me.Rock.You cannot be me; that's physics."

"Physics has nothing to do with this," the duplicate snapped."And you know it.I am you.I am Blues.I am Dr. Wily.I am everything that you fear, everything that you despise about yourself, and others."

"What?"

Rock's twin tore off his glasses and hurled them to the ground.Hawk-blue eyes identical to Rock's own stared into the black-haired Robot Hunter's soul."Does this help?The eyes are the window to the soul, Rock!What do _you see?"_

The android ground his teeth."Not . . . not my eyes.You are an impostor!"

The doppelganger melted, became amorphous.Darkness bled from it and spread across the sand as Rock's shadow-twin became a full-length mirror.

"And _now what do you see?" the voice growled._

Rock looked at his reflection . . .

And saw the doppelganger's eyes.Angry.Self-absorbed.Full of hate for himself and for others.Those eyes held humans in contempt and rejoiced in the destruction of the Robot Masters and that glory that came with it.Those eyes blazed with insanity, and self pity.

Rock's eyes.

"No."

It was barely a whisper, but Rock knew that it was his own voice that spoke, and not that of the doppelganger."No.That's not me."

"You know it is."

"Not me.Not all of it.You've magnified trifling matters--"

"Trifling?!You _hate yourself!By extension, you hate your creator, and his entire race!You hate your 'sister' for her escape from your fate, and you hate your once-friends for betraying you.You hate the Human Supremacy League, yet you also hate the humans who hide in their cities and won't fight!You hate Dr. Wily! You are more full of hate than even the most fanatic HSL devotee!"_

"No!" Rock's voice was stronger."You lie!You're trying to twist my feelings!I don't hate humans--or the Robot Masters!I pity them.I pity those who don't have the courage to fight."

"Pity is a thin veil for disgust, Rock."

"Shut up.That's crap."Rock slapped the mirror away.Instead of shattering across the sand, it melted back into a silver puddle at Rock's feet, before reassembling itself into the dark man.

It wore its sunglasses again.

"But you hate yourself."

Rock suppressed a grim smile."You're grasping at straws."

"No straw; this is truth."

"I hate what I may become if I follow this path," Rock admitted."I fear the idea of becoming a killer who commits atrocities under the blanket justification of justice."Sudden understanding lit in Rock's eyes."You're not my 'dark side.'You're my fear."

Quick as a striking cobra, Rock snatched the sunglasses from his clone's face.

The eyes beneath were now empty black sockets.

Surprisingly, the doppelganger smiled.

"More than that, Rock.So much more than merely your fear."The smile became a sneer, but Rock could see something else in the face--something he could not quite place."And soon, you will see everything that I am."

The expression behind the doppelganger's facade snapped into place.Rock had seen it in the faces of Robot Masters picoseconds before their deaths.

It was the expression of a hunter-turned prey.Understanding washed over Rock.

"You're the virus."

The doppelganger's expression turned ugly."Enjoy your short victory.You will soon wish you have succumbed to despair and died quietly in your sleep."

Rock turned his back."I reject you."

And just like that, he was awake.

The room was dark, or rather it would appear dark to human eyes.Rock switched his vision sensors to their infrared detection mode and glanced about.He was in the lab still, with several cables running to key energy reservoirs on his body.In the corner, Dr. Light slept.

Light flooded the room, and Rock switched back to his normal vision to prevent sensor overload.He blinked twice and turned his head towards the source of the light.

Roll stood outlined in the doorway, light from the hall making her a silhouette.

"Rock?What are you doing awake?"

Rock shrugged."Bad dreams.Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"What have you learned about the virus so far?"

Roll sighed."A lot, but not enough.I don't know _how Dr. Wily was able to devise such a horribly lethal program in such a short amount of time.It's self-replicating and self-modifying, designed to search out key areas of your brain and destroy them."_

"I thought," Rock said, sitting up, "that it was confined to the module where the Three Laws are stored."

An exasperated sigh was his reward, and Roll turned the room lights on."Listen, it's like a sort of electronic cancer.The main node is in that module, but it keeps trying to spread little 'tentacle' programs out to your other systems.Luckily, the virus-guard Dr. Light and I built keeps it from leaving that module . . . for now."

"How many hours do I have left?"

"Fourteen," Roll answered quietly."That's assuming that the rate of change at which it grows and adapts stays constant, which it has thus far."

Cold realization crept down Rock's spine."I think we're in trouble, then."

The lines of Roll's pleasant face sharpened into worry."Why?"

"It's self-aware, now."

*****

When Monique arrived at Skull Castle, she could barely remember her own name.

There were faint impressions of her life still imprinted on her mind: the face of a woman she assumed to be her mother, a series if letters and numbers on a tiny chip that meant life, a blue reflection in the mirror that was not herself.

Beyond that, very little remained of what could be called Monique Jansen.

_Kill . . . __I must kill them._

The thought surfaced amongst a dizzying sea of confusion.Monique shook her head and made a fist.

Doing so released a white-hot stream of plasma that ionized the air around her.

_That's right!The plasma-gun . . ._

She stumbled forward, searching a field of blood-crusted faces for one in particular.She couldn't force herself to resolve a solid image of her intended prey beyond an impression of mud-colored hair and cinnamon eyes.The one she sought still must live, or her life would be for nothing.

An explosion rocked the ground around her, and Monique, though robbed of memory, acted on instinct.Her muscles tensed and sent her into a catlike leap which carried her clear of the flying debris thrust from the ground by the nearby missile strike.

Where had the missile come from?

Using the sight-enhancing capabilities of the helmet she wore, Monique zeroed in on her antagonist.

_There._

At the head of a vast army that climbed the mountainside, was the face that Monique was compelled to destroy.

Coward.He couldn't fight her alone; he needed an entire army.

Well, that was fine with her.

*****

"It looks like the missile missed him, sir."

James Walken ignored the staticy voice of his artillery corporal over the comm link.The missile had really just been meant as a warning to Rockman.The blue robot had appeared several hundred meters in front of the advancing line of the HSL army a few minutes ago.

No matter if the missile had missed its mark; in a matter of moments, the army would reach him and wipe the miserable spawn of Satan from the face of the planet once and for all.And when Dr. Wily, too, was dead, James Walken would execute Dr. Light and rule the world as God intended.

The blue robot turned and looked at Walken.

Even though he was hundreds of meters away, James Walken could tell that Rockman was looking at _him._

"Juan," he snapped.

"Sir?"

"Get me a light laser cannon.The kind where the barrel will fit on my shoulder if the battery pack is on the ground."Walken smiled.He had been a crack shot for years--there was no way a robot could outshoot him.

For several moments, he just waited, watching Rockman approach.

When the cool, smooth barrel of the laser cannon was placed in his hands, it was like meeting an old friend.It was LGI-86 mk.2.Walken could tell without even looking.He was a weapons expert, after all, and this particular type was a favorite of his.

Hesitating only the slightest of moments, he shouldered the cannon, dropped to his knee, and sighted down the barrel, as if the laser artillery were a mere rifle.Drawing Rockman's midsection into the center of the cross hairs, Walken noticed that the android was limping.

Odd.

He fired.

Rockman twitched as the beam of concentrated light pushed a perfect hole straight through his midsection.

Walken growled.How tiresome.Now he would have to wait a few seconds for the battery pack to build another charge before he could properly bisect the robot that still stalked towards him.

The rest of the army had stopped now, and waited in an expectant hush as Walken prepared to fire again.Walken tasted their anticipation in the air, and breathed in the thrill of it.

Then he fired again.

The laser beam, visible through the smoke in the air, blasted through layers of armor and scored a direct hit in the center of Rockman's torso, where the sternum would be if he were human.

Still the robot came.

He grimaced in irritation and sighted the robot's head.Something still didn't seem right about Rockan--he was too quiescent.A decoy, perhaps?No matter.Walken would destroy the decoy, if decoy it truly was, and return to the business of storming Skull Castle.

The last laser shot was off Walken's intended target by a few inches because the man behind him accidentally bumped him just before he pulled the trigger mechanism.Instead of piercing the center of Rockman's head, the laser blew away the side of Rockman's helmet and released a flow of coolant.

It had to be coolant, even if it looked like blood.

Rockman continued forward.

Suddenly realizing that the robot was less than fifty meters away, Walken stood."Charge!" he screamed.

And as the voice of the HSL army rose in battle lust, Walken pulled the trigger.

So did Rockman.

Walken had half a breath's worth of time to realize that his laser had scored a direct hit and finally felled the robot before the answering blast of concentrated plasma engulfed his entire world in fire and pain.

*****

Dr. Wily watched all from the vantage point of his robotic roach spies.

The Rockman decoy was obviously malfunctioning; it hadn't even attempted to fight until the very last.That part, at least, had been satisfying.Though the robot dressed in Rockman's armor was false, the image of Rockman falling in defeat was no less sweet.

Neither, for that matter, was the demise of James Walken.

Just for the fun of it, Dr. Wily replayed the image over and over on his holographic projector within the flying saucer.In slow motion, one could see that Walken's clothes had caught fire from the heat of the blast just before the main plasma burst melted the commander-in-chief from a man to a crisped puddle of meaningless protein strings.

"Good bye, James," Wily muttered to himself."You were a paranoid, arrogant, bastard, and I hope you rot in hell."

And that was the last thing Dr. Wily said regarding the once-leader of the HSL.

He chortled to himself for a moment, and then pressed a button to release his main warbot attack force, and not the piteous reserve of modified building 'bots that had thus far been harrying the pathetic army of the Human Supremacy League.

Things were going well this day, Wily decided.Rock would be dead from the virus in a matter of hours, and the Human Supremacy League would be less than carbonized ash in a matter of minutes.That would once again make Dr. Wily unquestionably the strongest military power on the planet.

Time to issue a new ultimatum to the world leaders.

*****

Juan gritted his teeth.Rockman had somehow overridden the Prime Law of robotics and killed a human being--James Walken.For that act of murder, he had paid with his own life.Now Juan Iago would lead the Human Supremacy League into the bowels of Skull Castle to flush out the madman that dwelt there and to restore order to the world.

He stopped at the corpse of Rockman--and noticed something odd.

Rockman was bleeding.

Red, human blood.

The robot twitched, and there was no sound of machinery.The face that turned up to glare at Juan Iago with its one good eye might once have belonged to a highly trained assassin named Monique Jansen.

Juan had a split second to draw back in horror.

"Monique?"

The assassin's voice was raw and bubbly with the sound of impending death."Surprise."

The plasma blast engulfed them both.

*****

Mercifully, the warbots released by Dr. Wily were unlike their human counterparts, in that they did not relish their work, or draw it out for the sake of sadistic enjoyment.They killed with quick, ruthless efficiency, and wasted no time either crowing their victories or mourning their fallen.

And so, it was only a matter of minutes before the HSL army lay obliterated, a sea of corpses under a sea of leaden grey clouds.Crouched like a sated predator in the midst of the bloody carnage was the forbidding edifice of Skull Castle.

Though they had been immolated, the members of the HSL army had not died without a bitter fight, and nearly three-quarters of the warbot defenders of Skull Castle lay in pieces, awash in their own coolant and oil.

It was a mercy, however small, that when a line of blue energy signaled the arrival of Rock, the slaughter had ended.

Rock swept his sickened gaze across the madness that had gone before, and sighed as if his soul were shattering.

Such a waste.

And only twelve hours to live if he were lucky.

Rock grimly charged his buster and took the first, blood-soaked steps towards the gaping maw of Skull Castle's jagged entrance.

And in the depths of the fortress, a madman laughed.


	12. Skull Castle

_"Throughout the history of warfare, the role of castles and fortresses has been a mighty presence.From medieval castles like Beaumaris and Caerphilly to the spring-mounted, mountain encased installation at Cheyenne Mountain in America, fortresses have always been a symbol of man's strength during war.One fortress, however, deserves special mention.Skull Castle, the stronghold of the megalomniac Dr. William Wily--has been built and re-built so many times as to be the stuff of legend.Though each location and incarnation of Skull Castle has been formidable, few were as lethal as the original, perched in the highlands of Chile and guarded by ten thousand robotic warriors and Robot Masters. . . "_

--excerpt from the official training guide of _Warfare and Irregular-Hunting Tactics of the 17th Unit, edited by Dr. Alan Cain, historian and archaeologist_

**Chapter 11**

**Skull Castle**

Ten thousand pounds of stone, steel, free-floating hover-engines and armor shifted.

One single, blazing crystal sent a shaft of ruby-colored light across the room as the guardian glanced back and forth, searching for any difference in the room's mathematically perfect shape.The chamber was a giant, uninterrupted cube, with a single entrance and a single exit.

The entrance was in the form of a large, rectangular door that could be opened by means of a switch on either side of the wall.On the outside was the maze-like first ring of Skull Castle that could be reached through the courtyard.If the door were opened, it would retract into the ceiling, opening a clear avenue of fire for the guardian.

Behind the guardian was a tiny fire escape, much too small for the robot's own massive frame to fit through.One would have to be human sized to fit through such a small hole.That led to the chasm-like second ring.The guardian had only ever seen the second ring once, on his way out to the first ring.It was a vaguely-recalled collection of images--mostly of ladders, sheer walls and deep pits into the bowels of the earth.

The small fire escape behind the guardian was the only way, unless one could fly, to reach the second ring.

And to reach that fire escape, one would have to destroy Polyphemus, the cyclops.

Dr. Wily had named him after the greatest of the cyclops because he was Dr. Wily's greatest creation.At least, that was what Dr. Wily had told him.Polyphemus had intelligence of a type, though it could be compared to that of a small bird--little attention span, single minded with only a short-term memory.Also, Polyphemus liked to watch things move.

He knew that if he tripped a certain circuit path, then something very bright would come out of his single eye, and whatever he was looking at would be destroyed. That was his secondary mode of defense.His primary mode was to smash things with his giant, rock-hard fists.

Polyphemus liked smashing things.It made a loud sound, and when he was done smashing, he had fun counting the pieces of his target.The last one had been a small, yellow thing that scurried back and forth.

Had Polyphemus possessed a greater understanding of his surroundings, he might have known that the scurrying yellow thing was a metool that had suffered a circuit overload, and wandered away from its assigned area.

However, Polyphemus only knew that it was a little moving thing, and that he liked to smash little moving things.It had broken into seventy-eight pieces.

The one exception to his limited intellectual capacity was Dr. Wily's standing order: guard the first ring.The directive had been hard-coded into Polyphemus' brain so that it was a constant burning reminder of his duty to his creator.Even while recharging, the order was foremost in his thoughts.

So Polyphemus would guard this entrance until he was told to do otherwise.

In the meantime, to amuse himself, he divided into a hundred pieces and sent each piece jetting across the room until he had re-formed as a stone, one-eyed giant several meters away.It was his favorite diversion.

Far away, something rumbled, and Polyphemus felt an unfamiliar circuit path in his brain begin to coarse with electrons.Another message had been coded into him at his creation, but he had been unaware of its existence; it had never been relayed before.

The message, as Polyphemus understood it, was more or less: _First ring has been breached.Switch to Guardian mode._

Guardian mode, as Polyphemus knew, meant that he would be required to keep a constant vigil, watching for any sort of attacker.He would not be allowed to recharge or make contact with his creator, for fear of giving his position away to an enemy.

The sound of distant explosions underscored the unthinkable: Skull Fortress had indeed been invaded, and now Polyphemus would need to fight those who wished his master harm.

*****

Kelly ran.

As a courier for the HSL, she had memorized the passageways of Skull Castle fairly early on.He she drawn on paper her knowledge of Skull Castle's layout, the result would have been a nightmarish tangle of passages, switch-backs, dead-ends and secret tunnels.It was in one of the secret tunnels that Kelly now ran.

Darkness.Nothing but horrible, overbearing darkness in this world of machines.Kelly would give anything for a flashlight right now.Why had all the lights gone out?What the hell was going on?

She had never received word from the HSL high command to evacuate Skull Castle, and so it was a complete surprise to Kelly when she had awakened from her napping place this morning and found after a brief search that she was apparently the only human being left in the entire fortress.

There had been sounds of fighting outside for nearly the entire day; surely it was between the madman Dr. Wily and the army of the HSL.Kelly had been sick with fear and worry.What was she doing still inside Skull Castle?If the fight was going on out _there, why hadn't she been recalled to her unit?And if Dr. Wily had declared war upon the HSL, how long would it be before she herself was hunted down by guardbots and eliminated?_

Heart pounding with each panicked step, Kelly continued down the passageway.She _had to find her way out.She __had to!Every echo of her footsteps made her jump; visions of sentry robots spattered with human blood raced through her mind._

There!A light at the end of the passageway!Had it been a glint of sunlight, or the operating lights of one of Skull Castle's many robotic guardians?Damn this place!Kelly was _sure she had memorized the fortress's layout as far as the Second Ring.How could she be getting lost now?_

_It's just my nerves, she told herself, and kept running.Any moment now, she would catch another glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, and then she would be saved._

A deafening roar that suffused the entire corridor made Kelly shriek and cover her ears.As if some angry beast from the bowels of the earth had opened its gaping maw and let loose a cry that echoed the wails of hell's tortured souls, the very foundation of the castle shook with the intense, piercing sound.

It was, Kelly realized after a moment, the sound of all of Skull Castle's guns and laser ports firing simultaneously.So _that was why all the lights had gone off!Dr. Wily must have been saving power for this strike for hours now._

Trapped within the heart of the chaos, Kelly pressed her hands as hard as she could over her ears and made herself run further.

_Away.Just get away from that damned noise!_

As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.After several minutes, Kelly slowly lowered her hands from her ears and took a deep breath.After a moment, she realized that she had unconsciously squeezed her eyes shut during the noisy outburst.Relaxing her furrowed brow and opening her eyes, she gasped.

There, in front of her, was hope.It appeared as if a small hole had been blasted in the wall of the passageway, and sunlight pooled on the ground before it.Allowing herself a smile, she dashed towards her salvation.

Abruptly, the light was blocked out by the silhouette of a human in armor.

Kelly pulled up short._That wasn't any kind of armor she'd seen on soldiers of the HSL.Had Skull Castle been discovered by U.N. troops?That was all she needed.The HSL had been denounced for hate crimes and war crimes; any member of the HSL caught by the U.N. would face grave charges and probably life in prison._

The figure spoke, but it wasn't in English.Kelly flinched back at the sound of the strange words.

"Oi, anata!Daijoubu desu ka?"

"I-I don't understand," Kelly answered, hoping that the strange man was more interested in killing robots than arresting HSL collaborators.

"Ah, an American."The man spoke English with little noticeable accent."I said, are you okay?You've got to get out of here as fast as you can."

Kelly sighed with relief and began to move towards the exit once more."Oh, good, you speak English!Listen, I need help.I've been trapped in here for hours, and there's been no light or any way to get out.I think there was a battle outside--"

"Slaughter is more like it," the man answered.Was that sorrow in his voice?"If you knew anybody in the HSL, I would advise you try to keep your eyes up as you leave."

An icy spear lanced through Kelly's chest."What do you mean?Did they lose?"

"Horribly.The only living human beings here now are you and, I imagine, Dr. Wily."The man shook his head."This is madness."The man stepped out of the way so that Kelly could exit the tunnel.

Sunlight glinted off the burnished midnight blue helmet and armor the man wore.Splashed with pale blue on his arms, legs and torso, the man was a study in sky tones.Kelly eyed him curiously."Where are you from?The U.N.?"

"Not quite," the man answered.Unsure of what to make of the cryptic response, Kelly turned her attention to her surroundings.She had apparently been wandering in one of the secret passages in the outer wall of Skull Castle.To her left lay the massive courtyard and then the fortress proper.The skull-shaped edifice was half obscured by smoke hazed red with the early sunset.

To her right was the rest of the outer wall.Several meters before her was the main gate, through which lay escape.Kelly looked back to her rescuer."I have to escape.Are there any vehicles left back there?"

"I don't know," the man answered.He suddenly gasped and pressed a hand to his forehead."Oh, not now!" he growled.After a few moments or heavy breathing, his pain seemed to subside.He turned to Kelly."Listen.Just concentrate on escape.I'll be keeping the defense forces around Skull Castle busy, okay?"

Kelly snorted."By yourself?Do you _want to die?"_

The man looked like he would cry."No.No, I _don't want to die.Now please, just get out of here while you still can."_

"Who are you?"

The man shook his head."Haven't you guessed?I'm you're sworn enemy--the symbol of everything the HSL hates.Now get going!"

Kelly stumbled a step backwards."Y-you're . . . Rockman?!"

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, too," he muttered."Please, leave this place--it's nothing but a slaughter house."

Torn between feelings of confusion, anger, and fear, Kelly turned and ran.

*****

Twelve hours.

Rock gritted his teeth."I have twelve hours to live--if I'm exceptionally lucky.And I have to spend it here in this madman's fortress."

_And you're not exceptionally lucky today, Rock.Rock recognized the cold edge to the inner voice that told him that the virus was speaking to him directly._

"Shut up.I didn't ask your opinion."The ugly sensation of the virus' brutal intentions was his only reply.Rock shook his head in disgust and began his approach; no sense in wasting time talking to the virus if he had less than half a day to live and defeat Dr. Wily.

So.

The courtyard was a large circular shape, with the center dominated by the cancerous shape of Skull Castle.Between himself and the closest noticeable entrance were several large bunkers and other protrusions from the earth with less immediately obvious purpose.

"Time to get to work," the android muttered.

As he approached the first bunker, he was faced with his first adversary: a LighTech trash compacting robot.Leaping forward on its single "foot," the robot had obviously spotted Rock, and intended to make a quick finish of the robot-hunter.

Rock rolled sideways as the robot drew closer and loosed a spray of several plasma bursts that, while they had no immediate effect upon the robot's operating abilities, wee able to overload its photoreceptor long enough for Rock to run past it and make his escape behind the bunker.

And there stood another one.

_Well, did you expect that this would be easy? the virus chortled._

Rock ground his teeth and charged the second robot.Sudden inspiration struck him, and he switched his buster's weapon to Ice Slasher.A second before he fired, he shifted the components of the buster inside so that, instead of a lance of ice blasting out, a sub-arctic cloud sprayed out of his plasma buster and surrounded the robot.

The armored plating of the robot rimed over with frost and turned pale beneath a thin sheet of ice.It held still for a moment before beginning to lower its body in preparation for its next bound--the one that would inevitably crush Rock.

For a moment, Rock was afraid his gamble hadn't paid off.

Then, as the body of the robot lifted back up off the hydraulic leg, a piercing _snap resounded through the courtyard.Brittled by the intense cold, the servomotors inside the robot's motion mechanism had been shattered by their own movement.Rock dashed to the side as the top of the trash compacting robot snapped off its supports and fell to the ground with a gargantuan crash, leaving only the frozen hydraulic leg standing upright.._

The next trash compacting 'bot was almost as easily dealt with, and Rock began smiled grimly.He could only hope that the rest of the citadel was as easily cleared of resistance.As the last of the trash compacting robots thundered to the ground, Rock turned towards the entrance.

Abruptly, a huge block of stone, easily twice Rock's height, fell from within the ceiling of the fortress to block the entrance.Rock swore and switched his Ice Slasher off.The particular circuit group that supplied power to the matter synth module for the Ice Slasher was almost exhausted anyway.

"No way around it, I suppose," he sighed.

He studied the obstacle.There was barely enough space around the edges of the block for him to fit his fingers behind.As for weight, a quick calculation revealed that it had a 98% probability of weighing at least 1,500 pounds.

The raven-haired android shook his head.Although Dr. Light and Roll had modified his basic skeletal structure to give him more strength after his fight with Gutsman, he couldn't be sure of moving this boulder with no help.

Experimentally, he fitted his fingers into the slots on the sides of the rock and gripped.So far, so good.Gritting his teeth, he set his feet and lifted.

The boulder move a few inches.Rock shook his head in disgust and routed more power to his main arm and leg motor modules.He _had to get this thing out of the way.Now operating at 10% above his normally specified parameters for engine strength, Rock tried again._

The boulder moved a few feet, but not nearly enough for Rock to squeeze by yet.

"Move, you bastard!"Heedless of the consequences, Rock pushed his operating power to 155% percent and dug his fingers into the rock.With a metallic grunt, he hefted the boulder and hurled it several meters to the side.

Immediately, he was sorry he'd done it.Not only was his main spinal spring sending a slew of warning messages to him, but he also had to deal with what lay inside.

Fire.

Walls of fire roared up from the ground, obscuring his view of the rest of the entrance.As soon as one blazing curtain of flame guttered and died down, anther blasted up to take its place.Rock frowned and contemplated.It would be a fairly simple matter to switch to infrared vision and locate the power source for each wall of flame.From there, he could use his Ice Slasher to overload the heat sinks from which the fire walls sprang--at least temporarily.

To make matters more difficult, the fire walls were each situated on a large stair-step, meaning Rock would have to worry about leaping up and steadying himself each time he had completed the process.

Finding no other course of action, Rock activated his Ice Slasher and located the first of the fire-walls' energy sources.Rock hissed.This was going to be more complicated than he'd thought.The flame-throwers that made up the wall were linked on one circuit so that they'd all fire at the same time. However, they each had a separate circuit to their power source, so that if one were to burn out, the rest could still go.

If he could use his Ice Slasher to spray a cloud of sub-freezing material over all of the release valves, then the fire wall would be temporarily disabled.However, it would require perfect timing.Since his Ice Slasher used liquid nitrogen, it was extremely cold.Such cold would almost certainly damage the flame throwers.However, since liquid nitrogen was extremely flammable, he'd need to spray the cloud when the flames had all died down--if he erred by a picosecond, he would risk obliterating himself.

_And that would be a shame, the virus said nastily._

Rock felt doubt grip him.Could the virus manage to disrupt his operation for even that tiny amount of time?If so, then his plan would be not only risky, but openly suicidal.Rock's brow furrowed.No.The virus couldn't have gotten free so quickly, or Rock himself would already be dead.The virus-hunter installed by Roll and Dr. Light would continue to do its job for at least a few hours more.

_Better be sure, the virus laughed._

"Will you _shut up!" Rock snapped._

He chose to observe the pattern of the fire-wall's diminishing and renewal for caution's sake.Thankfully, they seemed to work on a "dumb" circuit that merely activated itself every few seconds.If the timer had been set on a random cycle, that could have caused _real problems._

One, two, three . . .

_Now!_

Liquid nitrogen blasted across the flame throwers' release valves in an icy wave.Rock leaped across the line of quiescent tubes and repeated the process for the next two flame curtains.Just as he had crossed the third and final one, the first roared back to life.Rock hastily grabbed hold of the ladder situated in front of him and climbed to the second level and--he hoped--to a less dangerous environment than this.

*****

Docman waited.

Several hours ago, Dr. Wily had ordered him to the Second Ring, where Docman now stood as Guardian.He understood that his was the last real position of defense against any intruders.After all, any who could somehow penetrate Skull Castle and defeat the one-eyed Guardian of the First Ring would also have to cross the chasm-like Second Ring, fighting a swarm of sentry 'bots and at least two Robot Masters in order to reach Docman's position.

Behind Docman lay the Third Ring, or, more precisely, a small drainage tunnel barely large enough for Docman to fit through in a pinch.The hatch led to the extensive coolant-drainage system that lay beneath Skull Castle.Though not from experience, Docman knew that if one were to follow the maze-like drainage system, he would either find himself back outside, or in the reservoir where lay the half-completed robot assigned to guard it.

Directly below that was Dr. Wily's inner sanctum, where Docman himself had been built, and Dr. Wily now waited inside his lethal war mech.

Docman shifted.It was the waiting that truly bothered him.Lacking the creativity to entertain himself, but unable to just switch to recharge mode now that his Guardian Mode had been activated, he had nothing to do except pace his chamber and wait.Either he would fight the intruders, or he would be taken off of Guardian Mode.

He clasped his hands and began to contemplate which holographic shield he should project when the HSL finally reached him.Searching his memory banks to determine what shape would strike the most fear into their hearts, he finally settled upon a choice.

When the door opened and his adversaries dropped into his chamber, Docman would wear the guise of the robot they hated more than any other: Rockman.

*****

Rock took a deep breath and glared for the fifth time at the shaft.

Upon reaching the second story of Skull Castle, Rock had been confronted with a few light surveillance robots and a seemingly endless supply of Sharksfang missiles before being forced to climb a ladder back down to the first floor of the interior of Skull Castle.

That had been easily as difficult as deactivating the flame-walls.The first floor was entirely lined with razor-sharp titanium spikes, each of which coursed with lethal electrical current.Rock had sworn in frustration when he had realized that the only way to cross the vast field of spikes was to ride on the erratic cargo-transport robots which intermittently hovered between one side and the other.

He had thought that the worst of it was over after jumping from robot to robot, desperately trying to avoid death by electrocution on the spikes below.However, after finally crossing the giant room of spikes and climbing the long ladder up to the second floor again, he had been confronted with this damned shaft.

It was a tubular shaft at least two stories tall with walls that were composed of perfectly smooth, solid steel.As Rock had found, to his bitter frustration, there was no way to get a grip of any kind on the walls for climbing.

Of course, he would have to use his Magnet Beam to try to build some sort of platform on which he could climb.However, the sheer amount of energy and time he would need to expend in order to climb the shaft would be ridiculous.So far, he had already spent an hour just trying to get this far.The prospect of another hour merely climbing the shaft galled him.

_Well, no help for it.He activated his Magnet Beam and created a shimmering half-translucent platform for himself in the air at about eye level.Leaping to that, he calculated how far he could easily jump with the half-existent platform as his base and produced another._

It was slow going, and for the better part of an hour, Rock made his way in a spiral pattern up the shaft, nearly exhausting his special weapons' energy reservoir in his repeated use of the Magnet Beam.However, he finally climbed out the top of the shaft and found himself in a long corridor.

From here, he could see that there was a large push button to open the door at the end of the corridor.It seemed to be the same type double-reinforced steel door that descended from the ceiling that he had seen before while fighting Robot Masters.

Rock gritted his teeth.Prior experience had taught him that anything behind such a door was never good news.Opting to recharge for a few moments, Rock sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

_Not smart._

Rock had only a moment to clench his jaw tighter before the virus began its attack.

This time was different from prior attacks.Rock felt first one finger twitch, and then another.Soon, his hands were clasping and relaxing by themselves, without his command.He tried to make them stop, but the circuitry didn't respond to his commands.

_Now **this is fun.**_

Rock suppressed the urge to growl.Instead, he cut off all power to his limbs and then re-routed the power through his auxiliary power core--where the virus hunter program was stored--before sending it to its sundry destinations.

_Oh!So, it's to be a game of logic, is it?Rock could almost hear a voice in his head giggling.__Very well, then._

So began half an hour of nightmarish logic problems for Rock.Just as soon as he'd found a new way to re-route power through his system, the virus would send out a tentacle program that would corrupt another circuit path.

Finally, it stopped.Rock took a deep breath, unsure of what had caused the attack to subside.Had he beaten the virus back for now?Certainly, there were no taunts for the moment.Deciding not to press his luck, Rock stood.

He had lost a precious half an hour to the virus this time.Now he would have to hurry through the rest of the castle._As if I've been dragging my feet until now, he thought grimly.His thoughts drifted to the woman he'd saved as he entered Skull Castle._

"Do you _want to die?"Her words echoed in his mind as he approached the door._

_God, no.I don't want to die.Why does it have to be this way?He reached forward to press the button that would open the door.__What's the meaning of my existence if all I'm destined for is suffering and death, or to inflict the same upon others?_

Rock stopped his hand and stared at it for a moment.

_How many robots have I destroyed with this hand?A hundred?A thousand?I've killed six of my friends and countless robots I didn't even know.How many more will I have to destroy today before I, too, die?Sadness welled up behind his hawk-blue eyes._

He pressed the button.

Steam hissed from the edges of the door as it receded into the ceiling.Rock took a step into the room, buster ready.Immediately, the door slammed down behind him.Unsurprised, Rock searched for his enemy.

The room seemed to be empty.Several stone protrusions stuck out from the otherwise mathematically perfect shaped of the cube-room.Rock walked to the center of the room and looked to the ceiling.Perhaps this room wasn't guarded.

Taking heart in the idea, Rock began to look for another exit.

Out of nowhere, something large bashed him in the back of the head.Rock felt himself slammed to the floor, sensors screaming with pain signals.Rock could feel coolant seeping down the back of his neck from under his helmet.He raised his head in time to see a child-sized boulder fly at him.

Rolling to the side, Rock fired a few short bursts of plasma at the boulder--with no effect.

Another boulder flew at him, and another.Hard-pressed to avoid the sideways bombardment, it took Rock a moment to realize that all the rocks were flying to the same place.He twisted his torso to get a view of the boulders' landing place, and gasped.

In the corner of the huge room was a giant made of stone, easily four times Rock's own size.Though it had no head on its huge torso, there was a large red focus crystal "eye" near the top of its rounded torso.Rock ducked as another boulder flew from the wall behind him and secured itself to a hole in the giant's leg.

"God, Wily," Rock breathed.This was unlike anything he'd ever seen before."This is--this is _genius!"_

_But mad genius, he reminded himself.Then, all other thoughts were brushed aside as he charged his buster again and prepared to fight once more for his life._

The giant rumbled a step towards Rock and smashed down with frighteningly fast, massive fists.Rock dodged to the side and peppered the giant stone body with plasma bursts.Although small sections of stone broke away from the massive armored structure, Rock noted with dismay that his attacks seemed to have little effect.

The giant turned its single eye towards Rock and squinted.

In his infrared scale of vision, Rock could see the blazing laser beam a nanosecond before it hit home.Circuitry melted away and armor peeled aside like wax under the intense beam of light.Rock bit back a cry of pain.His emergency energy was building up at an alarming rate.Desperate to burn it off before he overloaded, he switched to Thunder Beam.

"Take _this!" he hissed, and blasted a searing white bolt of energy straight at the giant's eye._

The giant seemed to drink it up.The twisting, coruscating twine of light melted without a trace into the red eye.Rock batted down despair.Could _nothing harm this monster?With his free hand, he covered his laser wound.If dust got into the gash, it would contaminate the circuits as his auto-repair systems struggled to compensate._

The giant stopped moving for a moment.

Taking advantage of the situation, Rock fired off another blast of electricity at the robot's crystalline eye.He was rewarded by a roar so deep it was almost subsonic.The walls of the room rumbled with the vibrations.So it _was working!_

About to loose another round, Rock was nearly crushed against the wall as a large piece of the cyclopean robot detached itself and came hurtling across the room towards him.Rock ducked and rolled, only to be bashed full in the chest by another piece of the robot as it sped across the floor and joined its counterpart.

The sable-haired robot hunter gnashed his teeth in frustration as the giant decomposed itself piecemeal and regenerated on the opposite side of the room._How was he supposed to destroy a robot that could apparently operate in several pieces with no clear core?Perhaps the __eye was the core.After all, it had fired the laser, and for such a powerful laser beam to be generated, there __must have been a powerful energy source._

Little enough to go on, but it was worth a shot.

As soon as the cyclops had fully re-formed itself on the other side of the room, Rock blasted off another pair of lightning bolts.The first hit the target dead-on, while the next impacted just to the side of the titan's eye, blasting away blackened chunks of stone.The giant roared again and took a quick step towards Rock.Once again, the massive fists swung at the robot hunter.

Rock leaped up and loosed three quick blasts at the crimson eye.

All three blasted home, and Rock noted with grim satisfaction that the last one had shattered the crystalline structure.The shards of red and black spewing away from the titan's rocky armored torso reminded Rock of a volcano in miniature.

However, the giant was not defeated.Once again, it split into a myriad of dangerous, floating boulders.This time, they swirled around the room in a chaotic vortex.Rock was hard pressed to keep himself from being beheaded by the airborne stones.A high-flying piece smashed out the large light fixture in the ceiling, plunging the room into darkness.Rock realized with a mounting sense of panic that his infrared vision circuits had been damaged by the cyclops' laser.

Something that Rock could not describe as anything other than a gut instinct told him to dodge.He tucked and rolled straight forward.As he did, he could feel the wind of something huge moving very quickly above him.He realized with sudden elation that if he had claimed the thing's sight by destroying its single eye, then it would be guessing his position just as much as he would be guessing its.He stood in the inky darkness and fired a round of plasma bursts where he assumed the giant was.

Sure enough, bathed in the harsh light of burning plasma, the giant stood facing Rock.Rock switched back to Thunder Beam and leaped in the air, the ghost of the image still burned into his memory.

Wasting no time on words, Rock loosed as many Thunder Beams as he could into the eye socket of the titan.He could feel the giant shudder.Just as he landed, his infrared vision returned.Static running across his line of vision, Rock could see lines of light forming across the robot, as if it were a puzzle and somebody was shining a light behind the pieces.

Then, almost in slow motion, the giant slid into its constituent pieces.A single small explosion signified the overload of its power core.Rock heaved a sigh and took stock of himself.His auxiliary weapons energy was down by 25%, and his own operating energy had been decreased by 10%.

_Nicely done.I do hope you put up such a fight when it is time for us to duel._

"Get out of my head, you bastard," Rock growled, and began his search for an exit that would lead him further into the depths of hell.

*****

Docman jolted.He had settled into a lulling pattern of almost-recharge, calculating a chain of natural logarithms, when the impossible happened.A previously dormant circuit pathway in his brain coursed with electrons.A new subroutine was being written into his programming.

The message he received was: _Second ring has been breached.Switch from Guardian mode to Enforcer mode._

Somebody had made it past the Cyclops guardian, and now Docman would have to fight to protect his master's life.

*****

The second ring was breathtaking.

Rock shook his head in amazement.The sight of the vista laid out before him deepened his conviction that Dr. Wily was a genius--although utterly mad.Like something out of a demented M.C. Escher sketch, the second ring was a study in impossibility.

Gaping chasms reached for hundreds of meters, bridged only by platforms that either levitated by use of antigrav packs, or held aloft by small supports that disappeared into the seemingly infinite darkness below.Once in a while, the platforms would lead to a tower that poked out of the chasm--a mechanized spike of bone.

Yes, to design something like this that _worked was both genius and insanity.Rock shook his head again.If the first ring had been a glimpse into hell, this was hardly heaven.However, the huge airiness of it was refreshing._

_Careful, he reminded himself, __it won't be too refreshing to fall to your death in the chasms._

Nine hours, twenty-three minutes, if he was lucky.

_Better re-estimate that as six hours, he thought grimly._

Swarming around the man-made canyon were hundreds of DRIM-3's.Rock readied himself and took a deep breath._Well, that's not so bad.At least I know how to destroy these._

_And what kind of person only thinks about how to destroy? the virus taunted.__I believe that would be the definition of 'evil.'_

Rock grimaced.Until a short while ago, he would have agreed.Now, he wasn't so sure.Was he really that different from Dr. Wily?They each had different motivations, but Rock had surely destroyed enough robots now that he would labeled a mass-murderer had his victims been human.

"Stop philosophizing, you fool," he berated himself.

Several quick jumps and some judicious buster fire took him to the first tower in a matter of minutes.The entrance to the tower was a low-ceilinged corridor that led . . . to a dead end?Stymied, Rock took a few steps forward . . .

And fell headlong through the holographic floor.

_Idiot!Idiot! the virus shouted gleefully._

Rock had to agree.He was getting careless if he wasn't even going to check for an infrared holo-signature before he started walking.However, now was not the time to dwell on that.Rock threw his weight into his legs and twisted in mid-air so that he would land on his feet.

As he crashed to the ground of a large chamber, Rock immediately noticed three things.

The first was that the room was another giant cube, even larger than the one in which he had just defeated the giant stone robot.His second observation was that in the corner of the room, there was an infrared holo-signature betraying the false floor.

The third thing was an Achilles model.

Rock wasted no time on speech.Instead, he loosed several searing blasts of plasma at the androbot's chest.Although the first two scored direct hits, the androbot had jumped out of the way and hurled its Rolling Cutters.

The raven-haired android smiled darkly._Two can play at that game._

Summoning a Rolling Cutter into his own hand, he leaped at the Achilles model and met it in mid-air.He noted that the androbot's eyes had widened in surprise at sight of another pair of Rolling Cutters.He plunged his cutters into the androbot's chest and loosed several plasma bursts into it as they separated.

He landed with his back to his enemy, and spun around.

The Achilles model held a hand to its wounded chest.Its other hand gripped its own Rolling Cutters."How?" it asked."I can't be beaten by _you!"It's voice was already starting to rise in pitch as its repair circuits tried to compensate for its mortal wound._

Rock gritted his teeth._I will not__ become a heartless killer._

"Get out of here.Now."Rock curtly motioned with his head."Teleport away, if you can.I won't pursue you.However, if you stay here, I'll kill you."

The Achilles model made no answer for a long moment.Then it shuddered.Meeting Rock's eyes, it growled, "Prime Law," and leaped for him.

It was already destroyed and smoking before it had covered half the ground between itself and Rock.The robot hunter shook his head."Idiot.I'm not going to hurt Dr. Wily.You could have escaped."

He walked to the corner of the room and poked his head down through the false floor.

Below was an opening to a place further down in the chasm.Another spiral of platforms led to another entrance in the tower several stories down.Rock sighed and swung himself down onto the platform.

This time, there were no DRIMs.However, on each platform was mounted a rotating plasma cannon.Rock frowned at the prospect of dodging and destroying each one.However, the task of descending on the spiral of platforms and destroying the cannons kept him from brooding.As he landed at the entrance to the tower's middle section, Rock scanned for another holographic floor.

Sure enough, there was another one.And, Rock suspected, another Robot Master lay in wait in the room below.He poked his head down a fraction of a millimeter--just far enough so that he could see into the room below.

"Damn."An Icarus model.Rock summoned a Rolling Cutter and leaped down, hoping for the best.

His first strike severed the Icarus' model left arm.The Robot master stumbled back screaming invective and hurling electric death.Once more, Rock hurled his Rolling Cutter, and the androbot's energy bolts turned back upon him, overloading his circuits.

Several plasma bursts finished off the Icarus model, and Rock searched for an exit.

_My, my.Haven't we become the efficient little assassin?_

"Shut up.Shut the _hell up!" Rock snapped._

He spotted another concealed exit and dropped down though it.As he had guessed, it was another spiral of platforms, this one leading to the lowest visible entrance to the tower. However, something was wrong.

There were no cannons, no robots.Nothing.

Rock held back, wary.It didn't make sense--where were the guards?All along the spiral of platforms, it seemed as if they had been abandoned.Rock frowned and took a step forward cautiously.

As he had expected, a bomb popped out of the chasm and exploded over his head.Had he been moving a bit faster, he would have been either thrown off the edge of the platform or maimed past mobility by the explosion.

_Nasty._

He carefully picked his way down the spiral of platforms, avoiding bombs and shrapnel as he went. The entrance to the tower's lowest level was once again a low-ceilinged corridor.This time, however, it led to a ladder.

Rock hesitated a moment, and then swung down the ladder, descending rung by rung.

_Where am I going? he asked himself, irritated.__This damn fortress is a maze of hidden passages.How many have I already missed?And what are the odds that I'm going to find Dr. Wily within the next five and a half hours?_

_None, answered the virus._

"I wasn't asking you," Rock bit.

The descent was quick if dangerous.On the way down, a veritable army of EyeBots scooted back and forth, waiting for intruders.They would have been simple for Rock to dispose of if he hadn't also been dodging the fire of the wall-mounted plasma cannons.

However, when he finally reached the bottom of the tower, he was still operating at 75% of his full operational power.Rock retracted his helmet for just a moment, letting the cool breeze of the Andes ruffle through his synthetic hair.

What a wonderful, cooling wind.Rock allowed himself a moment to enjoy it.How many times had he stood outside of Dr. Light's house and gazed at the clouds, letting the wind run its ethereal fingers through his hair?Once, only a few days after his "birth," he had sat on top of the lab and listened to the sound the wind made in his ears, enjoying the chaotic but soothing modulations of tone and pitch.

Wind was good.

_And this is the last time I'll ever feel it, Rock thought bitterly._

An ugly, creeping sensation told him that the virus was at work again.A chill ran down his spine, and he tried to push the feeling back.Rather than dwell on it, he kicked open the hatch that led down and charged his buster.

The android activated his helmet and looked around him."Goodbye, wind."

He jumped.

He landed hard and recoiled into a fighting stance, buster in front of him.However, the room seemed empty.Quickly scanning the walls, Rock noted an absence of rocky protrusions.There, at least, was one thing to be thankful for.

The soft hum of a levitation platform descending made Rock look up.

On the opposite site of the room, a disc-shaped platform lowered itself to the ground.Upon it stood--

"Stop screwing with my mind!" Rock shouted at the virus."I don't _need your damn hallucinations right now!"_

The voice in his head seemed amused._Not this time, my friend.I'm not doing it; the nightmare has come true on its own._

Before Rock was his exact twin.

Visions of the virus-spawned nightmare rushed through Rock's head, and he stepped back in panic.His fear circuits were running rampant, and the virus was feeding more energy into them.Rock felt like scrabbling up the wall and hiding in a hole until he died.

"What's the matter, Rockman?" asked his clone."Don't you recognize me?"

"Y-you're not real." Rock gulped.He looked down at his hand for reassurance and found that it was still in buster formation."You're just an illusion."

The other Rockman smiled chillingly."Oh, I don't know about that."He shifted his right hand into a plasma buster and aimed it at Rock."Let's see how illusionary _this is."_

Rock screamed as the plasma hit him dead in the chest.Angrily, he returned fire, but it seemed that most of his shots were totally ineffective.He accessed the Thunder Beam on his weapons submenu and fired off another round of silver-white electricity.

To his amazement, the Rockman copy shimmered.Then its armor changed to mirror Rock's own.What had once been midnight blue was now a steely grey, and the frost-blue color had been replaced by a pale, almost white, gold.

Even more alarming, the false Rockman returned fire with a Thunder Beam of its own!

Rock ducked the bolt of electricity by a millimeter.

Something was wrong.The readouts for that had been entirely different than when he had fought Elecman and the Icarus model in this tower.It was almost as if . . .

Rock switched to infrared vision.Although he could discern no discrepancy in the Rockman copy, the second electrical bolt which it now shot at Rockman was revealed to be nothing more than a plasma burst accompanied by a simultaneously projected hologram of a lightning bolt.

_It's an impostor! Rock almost grinned at the thought._

"Nice trick!" he shouted, and charged his enemy.

The room shook with the force of their battle, and brilliant light blazed through the cracks in the door and the drainage system access panel.Smoke filled the room, as a terrible, awful silence spread across the area.

*****

Deep in the labyrinthine coolant-drainage system of Skull Castle was a robot in a cube-like reservoir.It was little more than a high-power energy cannon mounted on a cybernetic brain and equipped with a short-range teleporter, suspended within a disposable bubble-lead sphere.

Bubble-lead had been a discovery of a Vietnamese scientist during the Third World War.It was a seemingly impossible chemical alloy that, while in air, was heavy as lead.However, when immersed in water, it expanded and its weight dropped by 90%.It had been highly useful in the field of underwater exploration and marine biology research.

In this case, eight duplicate bubble-lead spheres surrounded the reservoir.If the robot's own sphere were to be punctured, it could teleport to one of its spares and continue its patrol of the drainage system and reservoir area.

However, for the past several hours--since it had been switched to Guardian mode--it had been restricted to patrolling only the closest tunnels to the reservoir.And for the past half hour--since it had been set on Enforcer mode--it had been restricted to only the reservoir.

Now, its final dormant circuit path flared to life.

_Third ring has been breached.Switch from Enforcer mode to Berserker mode._


	13. Last Encounter

_"There's one word I can use to describe Rockman's fight against Dr. Wily: heroism!In one stroke, this android has managed to save both the world and the life of Dr. Wily.How he managed to fight Dr. Wily without harming him__ is still unknown.All that is known is that Rockman, through amazing skill, courage and self-sacrifice, was able to defeat the menace without leaving a single scratch on his body . . . "_

_--recording from a newscast given outside of Neo Tokyo city hall on the evening after Dr. Wily's defeat, 200X_

**Chapter 12**

**Last Encounter**

Docman dodged.

Fearing defeat, he had activated the alarm signifying a breach of the third ring.Once his deception had been realized by the true Rockman, Docman found that the blue robot-hunter was more berserker than warrior.

The chamber blazed with Rockman's rage and plasma blasts.Smoke bled from a dozen minor wounds in Docman's exoskeletal armor.Try as he might, even with timing of milliseconds, Docman never even found an opening in which to fire.For the better part of a minute, Docman found himself fighting for his very existence.With every passing second, his energy reserves drained themselves a little more in a vain attempt to supply his repair systems with enough power to keep functioning.

By contrast, Rockman seemed to gain more strength and fury as time passed.Moving at nearly a quarter the speed of sound, the raven-haired demon that had once been Rockman unloaded blast after blast into Docman.When Docman managed to finally score a shot directly on his adversary's buster mechanism--apparently disabling it--Rockman let out a scream of anger.

Docman had known fear for most of his short existence.Dr. Wily's manic outbursts had threatened the emulation-robot's life more than once.The possibility of instant death was--ironically--a fact of life to Docman.However, Dr. Wily always used a laser pistol when he felt threatened by the monsters in his head.A precisely aimed burst of energy from a laser pistol could end Docman's life instantaneously.

The blood-lust in Rockman's eyes told Docman that what he now faced was agony without measure before any kind of merciful death.The emulation robot's crude emotion circuits began to overheat and fuse together as the a single message was repeatedly relayed through them.

_Terror._

Disarmed of his buster, Rockman leaped _upon Docman and began bashing at him with titanium-reinforced gauntlets.Blows that could crack boulders repeatedly bashed into Docman's cranial neuro-computer case.The top-heavy robot staggered under the punishment.At this rate, it would be an even bet as to whether his skeletal frame collapsed first or his auto-repair systems overloaded and caused deactivation._

Docman raised his arms and slammed his fists into the side of Rockman's head.

For moment, he thought he'd won.Rockman seemed to go slack for a fraction of a second, and his head slumped forward.Frantic, Docman repeated the maneuver in a vain attempt to crush his adversary's head between his own steel fists.

A low, cold sound made Docman shiver.

Rockman was laughing.

Docman could only stare terrified into his enemy's face as it slowly turned upwards.The robot hunter's eyes literally blazed with an unholy light the color of bloody sapphires.A titanium-armored gauntlet shot and grabbed Docman's wrists.

_Snap.The grisly sound rose above Rockman's evil chuckling._

Pain signals flooded Docman's central processor and a gamut of warning alarms lit up his neural pathways.His hands had been broken by a single clench of Rockman's rage-strengthened fingers.He fell to his knees and gasped.

"Play on my fear, will you?"

They were the first words Rockman had spoken since entering his terrifying rage."_Bastard!How __dare you!"The android's physical attack redoubled.Docman spat coolant out of his mouth and tried to force air into his internal combustion chamber.The robot gagged and fell further forward onto his maimed arms._

Rockman kicked.

Docman knew from the blazing, intense pain and then the sudden lack of sensation below his waist that the robot hunter had broken his steel spinal support and the bundle of fibre-optic circuit-relays that were encased within it.

"_Why?!" Rockman demanded, his voice hoarse from yelling."Tell me why, impostor!Why does Wily want me to suffer any more?Isn't it enough that I'm as good as dead anyway?Doesn't he know that I __can't hurt him, even if I wanted to?"He kicked again, sending the emulation robot skittering halfway across the room._

Docman tried to push himself up on his spindly arms, but overbalanced and crashed onto his side.Brain nearly overloaded with pain signals and power-deterioration alerts, he spat oil and coolant from his mouth and gasped for fuel.

"I don't know," he rasped.The sound of his own voice terrified him.At least one of his voice-synthesis modules had been damaged by overload, and the speech area in his neuro-computer was damaged enough that his words slurred together.

The voice of a living corpse.

Docman felt his adversary grab him by the throat and hoist him.His own vision had begun to fail, and static swam across his darkened sight.The frame-rate resolution of his optical processor faltered, and reality became a series of barely-connected images.

"Please," Docman croaked, pain overwhelming him."Please destroy me.I have failed my father.I no longer wish to live."

The grip loosened, and Docman's torso fell to the floor beside his legs.

"God," whispered Rockman."God, what am I becoming?"He seemed to be talking to somebody else."_What are you making me do?!" he screamed.The room reverberated with his anguished wail._

Docman whimpered."Please."

For several minutes, silence.Finally, Rockman spoke.

"How can I kill anything so pitiful?"Then, a terrible, awful silence.

Docman let his head rest against the floor.His over-heated auto-repair systems still functioned: just enough to feed pain signals to his central processor, but not enough to make any real difference.He was doomed to a long, painful demise because of his adversary's cruelty.

The sound of Rockman's footsteps receding was the last thing Docman heard.His aural interpretation circuits cut out in a feeble attempt to feed more energy to his auto-repair systems.After a moment, his motor-control circuits cut out as well.

Desperate, Docman opened a radio link to his master.

_Father, he begged.__Father, please.I'm dying.Rockman has breached the third ring, and I'm going to die.Help me!_

There was a long pause.Three minutes.Four.Ten.Twenty.

Then, _You failed me.Now deal with the consequences yourself._

Docman would have wept if he'd had the capacity.Instead, he lay still, quietly waiting for death and an end to the pain.

*****

Rock collapsed to his knees and choked back a sob.

His adversary's broken, twisted remains lay at his feet, an accusation.

_Oh, you naughty boy, the virus chortled.__You fight dirty, don't you?_

"Shut up!"Rock felt the force of his scream blow another transistor in his vocal output simulators.His voice cracked."God, shut up."He glared at his hands.His left hand was a morass of crumpled titanium and leaking oil.The false Rockman had managed to score a disabling shot to the matter-synthesis module that allowed him to change his buster back into his hand.Rock's subsequent bare-handed attack on the emulation robot had battered his left buster past uselessness.

He put his good hand up to his head and felt the spiderweb-cracks the robot had made when it brought its fists together against his helmet.A dull ache laced through with a lancing twinge of pain had settled over his head, though it was slowly, if surely diminishing as his auto-repair systems tried to compensate.

He allowed himself a ragged breath.

He was exhausted.

Utterly, totally exhausted.

Pain signals from his maimed hand/buster threatened to overwhelm him.Rock glared at the source of agony and debated switching off all sensation to his left arm.It would be a dangerous thing to do--if his hand were caught in any machinery, he wouldn't be able to feel it until it was too late.However, the pain that radiated from his hand and crawled up to encompass the left side of his torso could seriously impair his ability to continue.

_A quandary, indeed.I wonder, will shutting down your pain circuits allow me to hasten my conquest?_

"Why did you do that?"Rock looked miserably at the shattered emulation robot that had been his adversary."Why did you make me do that?Where was the purpose in that cruelty?"

_What, no "thank you?"I saved your life--you were paralyzed by fear._

"I would have defeated him."

_Bullshit.You would have waited like a deer in headlights for your demise._

"And why would that bother _you?" Rock snapped."Aren't you supposed to kill me anyway?"_

_My way will be far more amusing.The virus' internal voice sent waves of fear and cold down Rock's torso.__I was just experimenting back at the lab.When this virus-hunter is dealt with, I'll show you what I've really__ learned._

The too-clear memory of the virus' internal attack on his pain sensors made Rock shiver."You're a sick bastard."

_Everything I know, I learned from you, my friend.Was the virus laughing?_

"An unoriginal lie."Rock hoped what he said was true.The virus hadn't been controlling his _every movement during the battle . . .And he __had been enraged by the robot's attempts to play on his fears.What if the virus had only fed his own savage emotions?_

_Now you see.My darkest ambitions are all copied from possibility matrices that you foolishly discarded.The virus' voice was triumphant.__I told you before, Rock.I **am you.**_

Rock shook his head.It couldn't be true . . . could it?

He stood and glared at his shadow, as if it would pull itself from off of the ground and face him with ghostly dark glasses and a black motorcycle jacket . . .

_No!I don't have time for this!Rock ground his teeth.He had to find Dr. Wily and prevent death.The Prime Law and his own conscience pushed him further on his quest to find the mad roboticist._

Rock walked and knelt by the ruined, smoking remains of the emulation robot.He had been ready to break its neck and release a blast of white-hot plasma into its fusion reactor.However, its last words had drained the anger from him like a leech draining blood.

"I have failed my father.I no longer wish to live."

Had Dr. Wily programmed him to say that, to play on Rock's emotions just as the false Rockman hologram had played on his fear?That was what Rock's logic circuits told him.However, the way that the robot has said it, with coolant foaming out of the corners of its mouth and choked with sadness . . . Rock closed his eyes.

Dr. Wily certainly had the genius to program such emotion into his creations.And Dr. Wily obviously didn't program the Three Rules into his creations, except a skewed version of the Prime Law that forbade them to hurt Dr. Wily or, through inaction allow him to come to harm..What would the result be if a robot were programmed with emotions and no Rules to shackle it?

"Almost human."The words were barely a whisper on Rock's lips.Almost human, and he had just killed it.He cast his gaze across the broken body,placed his good hand on its forehead."I'm sorry," he said."I wish it could have been different."

A shaft of golden-ruby light spilled into the room.

Rock glanced at the source; during the fight, the doorway sealing off the exit had shaken loose, and now the setting sun sent its dying illumination through the cracks.Rock look ed sadly at the shaft of light, extending down on both himself and his slain adversary.

Blinking, as if to hold back tears that he could not physically shed, Rock took a deep breath.

He turned and made his way towards the other exit: asmall grate that presumably led further into the depths of Dr. Wily's mechanized Hell.

"Goodbye, sun."

*****

Snap awoke with a start.Cold sweat thinly sheeted his body under the old quilt he had appropriated as a makeshift blanket. while sleeping on a couch in Dr. Light's house-turned-laboratory.He quickly glanced at his watch.By his count, Rock would have less than eight hours now during which to defeat Dr. Wily and return home.

A newscast on the holovid had revealed shortly after Rock teleported away that the HSL had been obliterated by Dr. Wily's warbots.Realizing that Rock wouldn't have to take on the suicidal job of helping/avoiding human beings who were bent on his death, Snap, Roll and Dr. Light had dared to hope that maybe the robot hunter stood a chance of victory.

Snap quietly stood and scanned the room.Bess and Julie still slept in one another's arms on the loveseat across from Snap's couch.He smiled at his sleeping daughters and quietly left the room.

The holovid was still running in the living room.Snap shook his head as a dozen reporters from as many nations speculated as to the condition of Rockman and his adversary Dr. Wily.Each channel displayed on the holovid was either running footage taken from sentry 'bots visual data banks of Rock's earlier exploits in Syndey and other cities previously occupied by Robot Masters, or showing a detail map of Chile and the approximate position of Skull Castle.

The Australian man narrowed his eyes and picked up the remote to the holovid.Switching all other channels except CNN off, he enlarged the display and turned on the sound.The journalist who spoke to the camera stood in front of a small army of warbots and human soldiers in towering mechanized power armor.

" . . . stationed here in Argentina," the lady was saying."Having obtained the location of Dr. Wily's hidden fortress by analyzing signals sent by the HSL's spy satellites, the United Nations are now sending a small, elite army to destroy the castle, arrest Dr. William Wily, and recover, if at all possible, the hero Rockman."

Snap's attention was now riveted on the holovid's ghostly three-dimensional display.

"The U.N. estimates an arrival time of approximately five hours at Dr. Wily's fortress.This fort--" the lady stopped and listened to something in her headset.After a moment, she announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed that we have been granted an interview with the young lady who gave the U.N. access codes to the HSL's spy satellites.Now transferring."

The image wavered, and was replaced by a picture of a young woman, not out of her twenties.She was bruised but not bleeding, and looked as if she hadn't slept in days.A man's voice spoke--presumably the interviewer."We're here live with miss Kelly McChord, the young woman who was instrumental in accessing the HSL's spy satellites and locating Dr. Wily's fortress.Now, Miss McChord, please tell the viewers what you told me a few minutes ago."

The young lady--Kelly--spoke.Although her accent American, Snap could hear the near-imperceptible speech patterns that marked her as one who had also grown up in Australia."I had fallen asleep in a secret passage of Skull Castle--"

The reporter interrupter."That's Dr. Wily's fortress?"

"Yes.He called it Skull Castle.Since I was a courier for the HSL, I spoke with Dr. Wily a few times."She swallowed."I could hear the sounds of fighting outside. I was told later that it was more of a slaughter than a battle."

"Told?"The interviewer spoke with the air of one who already knows the answer, but asks to humor the audience."By whom?"

Kelly's face seemed pinched.Snap felt the muscle under his left eye twitch."Rockman," she answered.She hung her head for a moment before continuing.

"When was this?"

"About three hours ago."

"And what did he say?"

Kelly thought."He said something in a different language--Chinese, maybe--and when I told him I didn't understand, he thought I was an American."Snap grinned at that, while Kelly kept speaking."He started speaking in English.He asked if I was okay, and told me I should escape."

"Did he know you were with the Human Supremacy League?" the reporter asked.Was that a hint of accusation in his voice?

"Yes."Kelly nodded."He knew, and he told me that I should escape.He wanted to help me, even though he knew that I worked for the organization that wanted to destroy him."She took a deep breath."He said that he'd keep the defense forces busy."

"And then?"

"I thought he was crazy.I asked if he _wanted to die.When I did, I thought he was going to cry.He just said no, he didn't want to die.Then he said he was pleased to meet me, and told me again to run."_

"And did you?"

Again, the nod."I found a truck that had been shot a few times, but the engine still worked.I drove to the nearest town I could find and used a phone.It wasn't hard to get in touch with the Australian consulate in Chile, and from there to the U.N."

The interviewer's voice spoke up again."And how did you come to have the access codes for the Human Supremacy League's satellite network?"

"All of us were given our own access codes, in case of emergency.Mr. Walken--"

"James Walken, the late commander of the HSL?"

"Yes.He always seemed worried that something would happen, and that everybody should have the power to act if something happened to everybody else."Kelly took another deep, shuddering breath."I think maybe he was paranoid.Anyway, I gave the U.N. my codes, and from there, I heard that a professional hacker was able to use my codes to access the whole network."

The camera pulled back, and a middle-aged man stepped in front of it next to Kelly."Because of your help, I hear you've been granted a pardon by the United Nations for your membership in the HSL."

"That's right."She seemed ashamed of it.

"And what are you going to do now?"

The young woman looked straight at the screen--at Snap."I-I'm going to Tokyo.When Rockman saved me, despite my being who I am, I realized that everything I was taught in the HSL was a lie.I want to go to LighTech labs and see if I can help redress some of the harm I helped to cause."

"That's very noble of you," the reporter said.He leaned to the side, as if listening to something."That's all the time we have now.Thank you, Miss McChord, for your help and for the interview.I hope you find the forgiveness you are looking for.This is Roland Kendrick reporting.Back to you, Erica."

Snap exhaled as the screen shifted to the image of the female journalist again.So, Rock had been alive three hours ago.There was hope.

"Thank you, Roland."The holographic lady spoke into her holographic microphone."And I have just received word that the status of Skull Castle has been confirmed.The architectural design is of concentric circles, and sensor sweeps have confirmed that the first two out of four have been cleared of any truly lethal threats."

Roland's voice, still audible, floated out of limbo."I think maybe we have Rockman to thank for this, Erica."

"I think so t--"

Snap turned off the holovid.So, Rock had cleared the first two rings, and now help was on the way.Perhaps there truly _was hope!He turned and began to walk towards Dr. Light's main laboratory._

Roll stood in the doorway, holding a half-completed circuit board.

Snap pulled up short."Miss Roll!I didn' hear you come in."

"Thank God.He's alive."Roll breathed a sigh of relief."Hang in there, Rock.Just a few more hours."

*****

Dr. Wily glared at the vidscreen.

Docman--thus far his greatest creation--lay in pieces on the floor of the Second Ring Guardian Station.Nearly an hour past, the emulation robot had sent his creator a desperate plea for help. Wily shook his head in disgust at the memory.The abomination had actually dared to break radio silence and beg him for existence!

Dr. Wily slammed his fists down on the video display of the his saucer, from which he observed everything.Via various spy cameras and the small roach-like sentry robots, Dr. Wily had tracked Rock's penetration into his invincible fortress, and witnessed the destruction of his two finest Guardians.

No matter.

Here, in the depths of Skull Castle, beneath the cental spire, Dr. Wily was safe.Rock couldn't possibly have much longer to live, and even if he managed to find his way through the underwater maze of the Third Ring, he'd never survive what lay in the Central Ring.

The German roboticist flicked a switch amongst the myriad of button and levers on his war mech's control panel, and the video screen flickered.After a brief moment, it wavered and displayed an overview of the Central Ring.Spiral-like, emerged in the cavernous lab where Dr. Wily now waited, and twisted up through Skull Castle's central tower, at the top of which lay an escape route large enough for the saucer module of the war mech.

If Rock were somehow to fight his way to the lab, Wily could easily escape to the upper hangar.A hatch that led straight up would guarantee his safe departure.Anybody foolish enough to follow would find himself swarmed by an army of Heracles-model androbots that waited in the barracks above.

Dr. Wily chuckled.Beyond _that lay a teleport hatch.Because the hatch was set on an alternating circuit, one would have to step into it several times in order to finally be teleported to the hangar.All other rooms to which it exited were traps in which waited Robot Masters._

Yes, Dr. Wily would be able to destroy Rock easily if the fool managed to escape the Third Ring.After all, if he managed to get as far as Dr. Wily's inner sanctum, it would only prove what Dr. Wily had been trying to tell the world to begin with: never send a robot to do a man's job.

Wily brought up the display that showed Rock's present location: the drainage system.

Well, just to make things more interesting . . .

With an evil grin, the roboticist punched a button that would signal the remote switch to open the floodgates to that area.

And in the madman's laboratory, the giant war machine floated silently.

*****

Rock landed with a rough exhalation of breath.

He had assumed this was a heating duct.However, if the mixed smells of oil and water were anything to judge by, Rock calculated a 78% chance that this was, instead, part of the coolant drainage system.

That being the case, he would most likely be moving downwards.

The android's hawk-blue eyes flicked back and forth, and he increased the amount of energy reserved for his photoreceptor operation.His his pupils expanded in the darkness in an attempt to garner some shred of detail concerning his new surroundings.

Pale traces of light filtered through the opening above through which he had jumped.The small amount of illumination it afforded was insufficient for fighting purposes, so Rock switched to infrared vision.

The large pipe in which he had landed was an even six meters in diameter.From where he stood, he could see that the pipe extended in both directions for several meters.Behind him, it sloped sharply upwards and to the left.In front of him, it dropped off at a sheer angle.Rock could hear movement from that direction.

Painfully aware of his time limitations, Rock made a few quick calculations.Thus far, it seemed logical that Dr. Wily would be found at the center of Skull Castle, where the protection afforded by the four circles would be at its maximum.The question remained: would Dr. Wily be more likely to hide in a tower at the center, or deep underground?

To wait in the tower would be the easiest way to ensure an escape--especially with his flying machine.However, that would indicate that Wily had admitted the possibility of defeat to himself, and that didn't necessarily compute with the data Rock had gathered so far.

Or did it?Would Wily hide in the depths of the earth, waiting for an attacker to corner him?Especially now that Rock had breached the third ring of Skull Castle, Dr. Wily would be more likely to move upwards, where he could escape in a hurry if the need arose.

_If escape is his plan.Rock frowned at the thought.Dr. Wily knew that Rock would not be able to hurt him, and that in a pitched battle, Rock would almost certainly lose against the German roboticist--restrained by the Prime Rule._

It wouldn't be feasible that Rock could thoroughly explore both up and down within his now-limited lifespan.It would be a gamble either way to decide whether to move generally up or generally down.

So, was Dr. Wily confident of success, waiting for Rock in depths of this man-made underworld, or was he frightened and ready to bolt from the tower in the center of the grim citadel?

_He probably thinks--and rightly--that I'll most likely be dead before I can even reach his lair.The android's jaw tightened._

Down, then.

Wasting on more precious time, he moved towards the sharp dropoff.From below, he could hear the echoes of machinery moving, and the soft hum of hover engines at work.Gritting his teeth, he swung over the edge, keeping a hold with his good hand.

His feet kicked something metallic.In the dark, empty pipes of the drainage system, it was a stark blaze of noise against the silence.Immediately, Rock could detect radio transmissions on several frequencies as an alarm was raised.

"Damn."

Rock released his grip and fell, switching his hand into buster configuration before he hit bottom several meters below.When he did land, he could see that he had kicked an EyeBot clinging to the ceiling, and that it was already dropping for him.

Rather than destroy it, he rolled to the side and quickly looked for another means of escape.If he could navigate these tunnels quietly, then he would; there was no need for extra noise.The EyeBot landed with a dull _thud and opened its five photoreceptors in an attempt to locate him._

Making sure to keep his body positioned in the sentry robot's blind spot, the robot hunter looked from side to side.There, opposite of the way he had just come, was another drop-off, similar to the first.

He tensed and judged the distance.Ten point seven six meters. He should be able to cover that distance in little enough time.If he could fire a series of rapid shots to distract the EyeBot--

Rock grimaced and glared once again at his maimed left hand/buster.He wouldn't be doing any rapid firing with that mess.Due to his carelessness, he would now be limited to a rate of fire half as quick as he was used to.

_Heh heh.You sure botched that._

His good hand clenched."I don't suppose it would do any good to tell you to shut up again."

_No._

"Great."Bitterness swallowed him for a moment, and the android could only glare at nothing in the darkness-made-light by his infrared vision.Why had Dr. Light given him emotions and then made him into a weapon?Weapons had no need of emotions--indeed, they were a hindrance.It was cruelty to inflict feelings and a personality for one destined only to kill . . .

Dr. Light . . . it had been his fault from the beginning.Rock clenched his good hand into a fist.He could feel the circuits in his left buster beginning to heat as they tried to follow suit.Yes, he would return to Neo Tokyo now, while he still had time.And when Dr. Light wasn't expecting it, Rock would show him what a mistake it had been--

He felt a strange heating sensation near the center of his brain, but brushed it away as thoughts of slaughter washed through his mind.Oh, Dr. Light would pay.And then Rock would hunt down Dr. Wily for making this necessary.To feel human blood wash over his hands . . .

And why stop with just those two?Humans were a pestilence, to be wiped off the earth!If he could force Dr. Light to remove the virus before he died, then he could kill to his heart content!

The heat became a sudden point of blazing pain, and Rock sucked in air to fuel his emergency repair systems.

A gasp of pain.

Rock collapsed on one knee and pressed his hand and buster against his head, to try to banish the keening wail that had begun to suffuse his entire being.Something was _wrong.Profoundly, fundamentally wrong._

The Prime Rule._How could he have forgotten that?And what was he thinking--kill Dr. Light?The module containing the Prime Rule had begun to activate itself; the very thought of murdering a human was enough to nearly drive his system to self destruction._

He felt as if sub-freezing water had been splashed in his face, and his eyes snapped wide open.

"G-god, stop that!"Rock growled.

_Just experimenting._

The ache in his head had returned centered around the dents in his helmet where the robot had pummeled him.How it was accompanied by a sharper, more definite edge that the Prime Rule's module had inflicted upon him.

Panting for air, Rock pushed himself to his feet.The virus was getting stronger if it could manipulate not only his body but his thoughts as well.He'd better hurry if he was going to find Dr. Wily and keep him from his self-destructive course of action.

For several minutes, Rock dodged EyeBots and made his way further down into the drainage system.After navigating his way through a nightmarish set of turns, drops and switchbacks, the blue-armored android found himself in a straight tunnel.

So, he had found one of the main drainage lines.

The smooth, circular pipe seemed to stretch for infinity.As far as Rock could see, there was no end to the perfect darkness that extended towards him from the passageway's cold maw.Even scrutinizing the area on both infrared and ultraviolet frequencies revealed nothing but that the pipe was several hundred, if not thousand, meters long.

_Click._

Rock wasted no time.He dropped into a tuck and roll, and came up with his buster aimed behind him, where the sound had originated.Another Robot Master?Certainly, there had been enough in evidence throughout the fortress.

However, instead of an enemy androbot, Rock found himself facing a floodgate that had just unlatched.He had less than a half second to gulp in air before the wall of water and oil slammed into him with hundreds of pounds' worth of pressure.

His eyes automatically closed to prevent damage to the corneal lenses.Rock felt himself slam face-first into the iron-and-concrete floor of the pipe.All sensation to his left arm left him as the rest of his body screamed with pain.The sudden shock to his system had overloaded most of the touch-sensitive circuitry on the upper-left side of his torso.

With grim humor, he realized that his useless left buster no longer hurt.

The current of the liquid swept him rapidly down the passage, and Rock felt his hands and armor torn as he was dragged over first one, and then another pipe junction.By the time he had reached the third one, he had pushed himself to his feet, and was able to stand upright while being pushed along by the flow.

No sooner had he regained his footing, however, than he was forced to throw himself backwards to avoid the Sharksfang missile that shot straight through the place where his head had been.

The entire pipe was filled with liquid, now, and Rock had been swept at least a thousand meters by its force.In fact, he could dimly perceive that in roughly another thousand meters, the tunnel opened into a larger room--perhaps a reservoir?

Of more immediate concern was the swarm of underwater missiles and mini-torpedoes that sped towards him.Rock charged his buster and loosed a stream of white-gold plasma bursts towards the foremost of the explosives.If he could make the first one detonate, perhaps it would trigger the rest before they reached him.

Underwater, the plasma threw weird, twisting patterns of light against the cylindrical walls.The first missed the missile, which mocked Rock with its painted fang-grimace.The second blasted off one of its guiding fins, causing it to swerve and crash into the wall of the tunnel.

The explosion hurled waves of fire and smoke through the water, preceded by an almost visible ring of sound.Rock leaned back to avoid being pushed straight into the conflagration, and had to throw himself prone to avoid a torpedo cutting through the explosion.

He could feel circulatory fluid ebbing from a crack in his lower lip from when he had been slammed down by the rush of water.As he maneuvered his back back into an upright position, he could see dark globs of it trailing behind him.

_How pathetic.He wasn't sure if the thought had been his or the virus'._

After several more uneventful moments, he was abruptly aware of floating; the floor had dropped several meters and he was being carried above it by the momentum of the stream . . . 

. . .straight through a circular hatch that sealed itself off after he passed through it.

He took a moment to examine his new surroundings.He seemed to be in some sort of reservoir, now.In the center of the floor were several large rocks and pieces of rubble--no doubt carried here in the same manner by which Rock had arrived.

From above, Rock could detect a tiny amount of light.

_I must be directly under the central tower.The thought almost filled Rock with hope.He still had a few hours left!If he could climb through the hatch at the top of the room and make his way through the tower, he could catch Dr. Wily and be back to Dr. Light's lab for a cure--_

Something huge blocked the light.

Rock swore violently and hurled himself backwards as it descended.His speed was retarded by the hindering liquid, though the thing before him seemed to be agile enough in its surroundings.It was at least three meters in height, and seemed to be a large machine encased in a bubble.

He took a quick gulp of the liquid to analyze it.If it contained too much coolant, then firing his plasma buster would be foolhardy to the point of suicidal.A chain reaction here would not only destroy Rock, but most likely cause Skull Castle to collapse, killing Dr. Wily.

To his relief, it seemed that here within the reservoir, there were only trace amounts of flammable coolant.The rest of the liquid was composed of water and other "safe" chemicals that would not be affected by Rock's buster.

He loosed a blast towards the giant thing, hoping to punch a hole in its bubble.If he was quick, he might be able to cause a short-circuit within the guardian 'bot without a pitched battle.The white-hot globe of plasma crashed into the bubble with a crackling sound audible even where Rock stood.A small spiderweb pattern spread across the affected section.

Sensing its attacker, the globular robot rolled towards Rock, too quick in the water to be natural . . .

_Bubble lead!The blue-armored android grimaced in frustration.This would take longer than he'd thought.Bubble-lead was a tough, transparent substance true to its name; it was bubble-light underwater and lead-heavy on land.To penetrate a shield made of bubble lead would take several shots from his plasma buster.In a corner of his mind, Rock wondered where Dr. Wily had acquired so much of the substance--a notoriously rare and difficult-to-produce material._

From within the bubble, a bolt of multicolored energy spat forth and slammed Rock against the wall.He could feel it spreading through his torso and igniting pain circuits.

_What the hell?Although he had been damaged, the purpose of the attack seemed more to cripple him with pain than to destroy him.Rock gritted his teeth and pushed himself straight, firing a steady line of plasma straight into the bubble-lead case._

With a sucking noise and a flash of light, the robot imploded.

Rock took a few breaths of water to feed his fusion generator.That had been easier than he'd expected.

Too late, he saw the shadow of another robot, identical to the first.

He barely had time enough to propel himself out of the way before it landed and began its immediate approach.Rock narrowed his eyes and loosed another row of plasma blasts into the new robot.Was it his imagination, or was this one moving faster?

Again, the same result.The robot imploded with a flash of light as the bubble lead collapsed in on itself.

No, Rock realized.Not imploding: disappearing!Had it been the same robot?

Once again, another identical robot popped out from a hatch in the far wall and approached Rock, even faster than before.This time, it wasted no time, but fired its own volley of plasma and the strange, many-hued energy.

Rock tried to jump the attack, but knew as soon as his feet left the ground that it was too late, that the liquid had slowed him too much.Instead of leaping over the horizontal rain of blazing destruction, he took the brunt of it full in his stomach.He screamed into the water and blasted the giant bubble with an over-charged plasma burst.

As expected, the bubble crumpled.This time, Rock detected the tell-tale whine of a teleport device.He was ready when the fourth emerged from the hatch at the top of the room, moving with even more speed than it had before.

For several minutes, he played a game of dropping, rolling, dodging and firing when he could.However, he had no way of knowing how many spare shields the robot had.At this rate, he would be dead in a matter of minutes.If only he could destroy it before it had time to teleport . . .

With sudden inspiration, Rock brought up his weapons submenu and called up a Hyper Bomb.

Hurling it at the robot, he ran to the side of the room where a particularly large, sharp piece of rubble lay.As the bomb exploded, Rock switched from infrared vision to keep from being blinded--as he hoped the robot momentarily was.

Sure enough, it had stopped moving.

Wasting no time, Rock leaped forward and hurled the blocky, sharp mass of steel at the robot like an oversized, javelin.He switched back to infrared vision just in time to see the robot crushed against the wall by the makeshift missile; unable to detect it, the robot had not had time to activate its teleporter before it was crushed.

Just for good measure, Rock unloaded several plasma blasts into the inert robot until it blew apart in a shower of sparks and underwater fire.For along moment, he stood still, waiting for yet another attack.

None came.

He exhaled and took stock of his situation.He was still running at 50% energy.With luck, he would be able to recharge a bit while he climbed out of the drainage system.Rock dared to let himself hope, for the tiniest fraction of a second, that he would live beyond today.

_Don't bet on it, the virus laughed._

*****

General Mears shrugged in the night air.

As one of the five major generals of the combined U.N. Army, Saul Mears had risen to his position through hard work and sacrifice.Three marriages had failed due to his single-minded dedication to his career, but Mears didn't mind.

His orders today looked like they had been pulled from a comic book.He was to take his elite troops to a giant castle in the mountains called Skull Castle and arrest a megalomaniac who wanted to rule the world.

Secondary orders: rescue the android life-form Rockman.

Rescue a robot . . . now he'd heard everything.Like most people on the planet, Mears had been following the battle between Rockman and Dr. Wily's minions for the past week.Unlike other people, however, Mears regarded Rockman as what he was--a machine-turned weapon that could imitate human mannerisms.

Mears' stepdaughter had a toy robot that could talk when you pressed a button on it--big deal.Just because it said "I love you" didn't mean it actually felt anything; and just because Rockman acted like a soldier didn't mean he was a hero.

Mears shrugged again.This uniform was too tight across his shoulders.He made a note to have it replaced after this assignment was done.Ah, well.Whether Rockman was a hero or not didn't pertain to Mears' orders--he just needed to see if the robot was still functioning and return it to LighTech in Japan if it was.

He looked outside of his pavilion.The hovership was almost ready to lift off.Well, he'd better send a radio signal to this Rockman to let him know an army was on the way; it wouldn't do to destroy the fortress with the robot inside.

*****

Halfway up the ladder, Rock stopped.

It was like a tickle at the back of his brain--somebody was sending a radio signal from outside of Skull Castle.The raven-haired android continued his climb as he tried to decode it.

From the reservoir, he'd found an access ladder and escaped to dry land once more.As he had suspected, he was now at the bottom level of the central tower of Skull Castle.In fact, he had emerged into Dr. Wily's lab.Spare parts and shredded blueprints lay strewn across the floor.The walls were blackened with scorch marks--presumably from a laser pistol.Rock had wondered if perhaps some of Wily's robots had turned against him.

The lab was otherwise empty; all of the video screens in the room had been destroyed--and recently.Rock suspected that he had missed Dr. Wily by a matter of minutes.But why?If Wily's plan was to destroy Rock, why had he fled?And if his plan was escape, why had he been waiting down here in the first place?

Still on the ladder, Rock shook his head and continued climbing upwards.He noticed as he approached the ceiling that was hinged in the center, like giant double doors.Did that mean that the lab had doubled as a hangar for Dr. Wily's flying machine?Perhaps Wily waited at the top of the tower, in case Rock made it that far.

He shivered, and felt his fingertips grow numb.

_Not long now.The virus' voice was laden with sadistic glee.Rock grimly continued his climb up the ladder, emerging in a vast, spiral-like room that twisted slowly upwards._

"God!"Rock could not restrain the exclamation.

Suspended in the ceiling in crystalline stasis chambers were hundreds--no, thousands!--of Heracles models.If Dr. Wily were to activate them, they could destroy anything in their path for hundreds of miles.Properly supplied with energy, such an army of Heracles androbots could lay waste to the entire continent of South America within weeks.

That signal again.

Rock could just barely make out words within the repeating radio message." . . . to Rockman._Bzzzzt--Skull Castle and __bzzzzt destroy __bzzzzt in forty minutes.Message repeats . . ."_

Destroy Skull Castle?What was going on?Had the U.N. finally mobilized?

If they intended to destroy Skull Castle within the next forty minutes, that made Rock's mission all the more urgent--by the Prime Law, he could not allow Dr. Wily to die through Rock's inaction to arrest him and get him away from Skull Castle.

He broke into a run and ignored the rotocannons that sprayed him with plasma "bullets."His auto-repair systems were working well enough that the only damage he took was superficial.Rolling, jumping, running, Rock made his way to the end of the up-sloping corridor and climbed the ladder at the end of it.

And found himself faced with a vast sea of sharpened stakes, coursing with electricity.The only way across the spiky death grounds was a small cargo-transport platform.Grimacing at the memory of using the same type of device in Nokaneng, Rock took a few steps forward and prepared to jump.

One, two . . .

_Now!_

Rock landed with a metallic clang and steadied himself.From here, he could see that the cargo lift was taking him towards a platform jutting from the wall of the massive room.And at the end of the room was something tall and cylindrical.

He leaped from the elevator and moved across the platform towards the large cylinder.

Ill at ease with the idea of just stepping into it to see what would happen, Rock switched first to infrared and then to ultraviolet scanning, but could detect nothing denoting a trap.In fact, after a few moments radio scanning, he detected slight hypersonic whine that indicated a teleport device.

But to where?

Running his good hand through his mane of black hair, he paced the arc in front of the teleporter.He had no time to waste, and this teleporter seemed to be the only immediate exit.Stepping in would be a gamble . . . but better to gamble than to waste time on indecision.

Rock readied his good buster--no telling what he would end up in front of--and stepped in.

The world turned fuzzy for a fraction of a second before Rock found himself standing in a large cubical chamber with no exit, and one Robot Master.

The Hephestas model turned and glared at Rock.

"So," it said, seeming to dislike the necessity of speech."You've come this far, then.I wondered why the castle had been switched to Berserker mode.I admire your skill, Rockman, but this is as far as you go."

Rock frowned."I don't have time for this.If you truly wish to serve Dr. Wily, let me pass.Otherwise, he will die."

The androbot nearly smiled."You think to threaten _me?Very well, then.Feel the power of Bombman mark 2!"And with no further discourse, the androbot leaped at Rock, hurling a jet-black sphere of destruction._

Rock tried to step back into the teleporter, but to his dismay, he found that it had been deactivated.Angered at his own carelessness, he dodged the new "Bombman's" explosive and switched to Firestorm on his weapons submenu.If he could overheat his enemy, then the bomb materials within the spherical androbot would surely react and explode.

With the switch, his armor flickered from its customary shades of blue to a fiery gold and crimson.Wasting no words, he released a blazing wall of flame at his enemy, and was grimly satisfied to see it hit home, hurling the androbot to the ground.Rock was surprised to note that he had been temporarily shielded by a sphere of fire as well.

"What was _that?" Bombman mk.2 struggled to his feet, eyes narrowing."Dr. Wily didn't say anything about this."_

Rock frowned and fired another incendiary wall, with the same effect.The androbot recovered more quickly this time, leaping high into the air and raining bombs down on Rock.The gold-armored robot hunter dodged easily and returned fire.He could see that Bombman mk. 2's armor was beginning to noticeably melt.One more blast . . .

With the final strike, he shielded his eyes as Hephestas model erupted into a brilliant explosion of violent crimsons and yellows.Molten pieces of steel and iron landed at Rock's titanium-booted feet and rolled a small ways.Rock lowered his hand and looked around the room.Seeing no other exit, he cursed.

Smoke drifted lazily around the room, and Rock let his gaze follow it to the teleporter--

The teleporter was clear of smoke.Rock narrowed his eyes.That could only mean that it was teleporting the smoke out of the room.Perhaps the teleporter would only stay deactivated if receiving a signal from the Robot Master within.

Hoping to backtrack and find another way to the top of the tower, Rock stepped back into the teleporter.However, instead of emerging back in the cavernous spike-floored chamber, he materialized in another room almost exactly the same as the one he had just left.

However, in place of Bombman mk. 2, there stood a crimson and white androbot with a stove-top helmet and top-heavy breastplate.

A Helios.

Rock's fire-colored armor shimmered and became silver and frost-blue as he summoned an Ice Slasher."Fireman mark 2, I presume."

"Fireman" nodded curtly and assumed a fighting stance.No talk here--just the will to destroy.Rock almost preferred that, given his time constraints.Having studied Fireman's tactics in New Denver, this Helios model's were nothing now.

Rock dodged walls of infernal heat and conflagration, drawing ever closer to his prey and driving him into a corner with hurled Ice Slashers.The second Fireman's eyes narrowed as he realized Rock's plan, and he charged forward, blazing with fire and fury.

The raven-haired android hissed as he took damage to his outer armor, but stood his ground and called an Ice Slasher to his hand at the last second.Ducking under the Helios' charge, Rock braced the Ice Slasher on the crumpled mass of his left buster and used the force of both hands to slam it straight through the androbot's torso.

The new Fireman crumpled to the ground, gasping a single word."How?"

Rock took a step back and shook his head.What had Wily's purpose been in naming these other Robot Masters after his generals?Surely, he didn't plan to try again?His fortress was under attack and the U.N. would soon be here to destroy it.What use in creating new generals unless . . .

Unless this was not the only Skull Castle?

"Oh, God."Realization washed over Rock in an ugly, cold wave.If he didn't stop Wily soon, the German roboticist would escape to another fortress every bit as hellish as this one and begin his plan for world domination anew.

The thought drove Rock to turn and walk back into the teleporter.If it had taken him to a new room once, it might do so again.He ran a quick check on his power reserves before he was fully enclosed by the teleportation field.Still at 50% operating power, with 45% of the energy reserved for weapons use still available.Not bad, for having stormed the castle single-handedly.

As he materialized in the next room, he was immediately faced with an Orpheus androbot.

Rock took a half step forward.His armor flickered.What had once been silver now looked the color of burnished platinum, and the frost-blue had faded to a steely grey.Armed with the Thunder Beam, the robot hunter spoke.

"You are Iceman mk. 2?"

The new Iceman nodded."I am.And what is that to you, Rock?"

Rock's jaw tightened."Don't call me that."

Iceman half shrugged."And why not?We used to be friends, you and I.All you have to do is cease this pointless attack and we could be friends again."

Rock shook his head."My friend was Orpheus.When he became Iceman, he was my friend no longer.And he is dead."

The edges of Iceman's mouth turned up in a sardonic grin."Is he.Well, let us say his memory lives on in me."

Had Rock been human, his jaw would have dropped.Could it be?Had Dr. Wily saved the personalities of his generals and transferred them to these new bodies?The idea was more cruelty than Rock could stand.

"Liar."He intended for the accusation to sound righteous, but it came out weak.

Iceman's grin widened."Oh, and what would lying gain me?I remember everything from the moment of my activation until the about twenty minutes after I heard you'd arrived in New Shirewick."He waved a dismissive hand."After that, I assume you must have destroyed my body."

The grin disappeared."That will _not happen again, Rock."_

The fight was quick and brutal.Rock had time to blast off three bolts of coruscating electricity before he was forced to duck and twist to avoid the lethal razor-sharp Ice Slashers hurled in his direction.

Still standing on the teleporter, he felt the world twist as he dematerialized.When he had re-formed in the next chamber, his first thought was that Iceman must have accidentally stopped transmitting the deactivation signal to the teleporter.However, he calculated that the probability of that was only 13%.More likely, he concluded, his attack must have destroyed Iceman, and because he was standing on the teleporter still, it instantaneously activated.

The few microseconds it took to come to that conclusion nearly made Rock forget to take in his surroundings.Once again, he was in a large cubical chamber, more or less the same as the previous rooms in which he had recently fought.

The most noticeable difference was the presence of a large Heracles model rather than another Orpheus.Rock quickly switched to Hyper Bombs, and his armor faded to silver and emerald hues.

The Heracles androbot turned and took notice of Rock, and its lantern jaw clenched.

"So, then.Iceman is again defeated."He shook his head."Do you intend to destroy everything until you reach Dr. Wily?"

Rock summoned a Hyper Bomb and held it meaningfully."Unless you enable this teleporter again, yes."The way the Heracles' eyes narrowed told Rock that his theory was correct.His mind raced.Why was he turning up in different rooms?Was the teleporter set a random cycle that would send the user to a different location with each use?If that was the case, it could be literally days before he reached the top of the tower.

"Ridiculous."The Heracles model clenched his fist and took a lumbering step towards Rock."If you persist in this, I'll smash you myself!"

As it began its juggernaut approach, Rock hurled a triad of Hyper Bombs in quick succession.While only the first struck home and exploded, he could see it had an immediate effect.The cumbersome, triple-plated armor equipped on Heracles models was meant to absorb an impact from outside.However, when it was nearly blown apart from forces on a plane with it, its structural integrity diminished.

Heartened, Rock managed to score another hit before the giant of an androbot was nearly upon him, roaring with surprised rage.He threw himself to the side as one of the massive fists grazed his head.Had the punch hit home, the robot hunter would have been decapitated.

With a nasty grin, Rock summoned a Hyper Bomb and shoved it against the Heracles' chest plate, wedging it between the point where the two parts of the breastplate came together."Have a nice day."

He rolled out of the way in time to avoid the explosion, but took some glancing blows from the flying pieces of armor.Wondering at the virus' quiescence for the past several minutes, Rock decided that it couldn't mean anything good.If the virus wasn't taunting him, then it was most likely doubling its efforts at eroding the virus-hunting program before--

Rock stopped stock still.

_Before he reached Dr. Wily._

He had to hurry.Rushing back to the teleporter, he could already feel cold tendrils of virus' program seeping into his mind.The virus-hunter was breaking down.With cold certainty, Rock knew that his lifespan was now limited to minutes--in the high teens at the most.

As he re-materialized, he saw immediately that he had reached his destination.The hangar was long and tilted upwards.At the end of the long corridor was a hatch that most likely led to the landing bay/launch pad for Wily's machine.

Running as fast as he could make himself, Rock punched the entry button to the main bay doors and rolled underneath as soon as a wide enough space opened.

There it was.

Rock stopped in sheer awe of the moment.Here, at last, was the culmination of his quest.After nearly two weeks of pain, fear and torment, he had reached the end of his search.Before him, in position to launch before the half-open hangar doors, was Dr. Wily's giant war mech.

Plated in brass and still splashed with the dried blood of HSL soldiers he had slaughtered, the mech waited impatiently for its doors to freedom to open.Two giant coolant tubes ran from the main chassis of the vehicle to the engine, which operated the hover engines, the main thrusters and the guiding propellers, which slowly spun.

Snapped back to the moment by the urgency of the situation, Rock desperately scanned the room for a control panel of some sorts.He couldn't let Dr. Wily escape to another castle--his only option in accordance with the Prime Rule was to arrest Dr. Wily and take him out of the castle before the U.N. destroyed it.

_There!_

Across the room, the control panel blinked with a myriad of lights.

Taking a deep breath, Rock aimed and fired.

The control panel seemed to explode in slow motion, and the massive hangar doors ground to a halt with a hideous, wrenching groan.Rock felt a horrible sense of irrational fear sweep over him.This, then was it.One way or another, he would be dead within minutes.Logic dictated that he could not physically attack Dr. Wily to restrain him, and He could not possibly win against the giant war machine without hurting Dr. Wily and so, activating his own self-destruct mechanism.

And, he reflected grimly, even if he _did manage to do that, the virus would kill him in less than twenty minutes.He straightened his back and held his head high as the lethal war mech slowly turned to face him._

"Goodbye, life."

The mech now faced Rock.Atop it, he could see the detachable saucer module that he had seen on the video recordings of the siege at Skull Castle.However, there was no sign of Dr. Wily's personal location within the armored behemoth.A large, bulb-like protrusion at the front, plated with laser-reflective armor seemed to be the most likely possibility.Mounted on either side of the assumed cockpit were heavy plasma cannons--easily doubly as powerful as Rock's own buster.

For several moments, neither of them spoke.

Finally, Dr. Wily broke this silence.His voice came through a large amplifier in the ceiling of the room, presumably broadcast from within the mech.

"Rock.Why have you come?"It sounded surprisingly sane.

Rock took a deep breath, warning himself that Dr. Wily was insane, and that a conversation could easily erupt into violence with little or no provocation.He readied his right buster just in case."You know why."

"Yes.You've come to kill me."The sanity had left the German roboticist's voice, but he had not yet bridged the gap to hysteria."You come to release _them!"_

Rock shook his head."I've come to take you to jail."He gestured out the half-open hangar bay door."In less than half an hour, the U.N. is coming to destroy Skull Castle.It's over, Dr. Wily."

"Du willst mich töten!" Wily had slipped from Japanese to German in his speech.

Rock shook his head."You know I don't have any intentions of killing you--I couldn't even if I wanted to."He hesitated.What could he say that would make a madman listen?"Just please come with me and I promise you won't get hurt."

"_Lügner!"_

The plasma cannons opened fire simultaneously, and Rock rolled towards the mech, hoping to dodge his own destruction and to move too close for the barrels of the cannons to target him.He had to think of a way to get Dr. Wily out of the mech.

This close to the war machine, he could see a thin line around the edge of the cockpit-bulb.A plan began to form in his mind.Rock stutter-stepped and dodged as the mech moved backwards, and loosed another pair of linked blasts.German invective streamed from the speakers above, mixed with senseless babble.

_Poor Wily.He doesn't even know that he's insane.Rock tried to pity his enemy, but found an emotion rising in him that--surprisingly--didn't sting with the taint of the virus' touch._

Anger.

Rock had been Dr. Wily's friend.He'd joked with him, discussed great works of literature with him, gone to concerts of the Tokyo Philharmonic with Dr. Wily and Dr. Light.He had given Wily the benefit of the doubt when the attack on LighTech came.He had offered Dr. Wily a chance at life and even possible redemption.

He had extended Dr. Wily every kindness he possibly could have.

He had destroyed his own life for the sake of this bitter, twisted madman.

And Dr. Wily was trying to kill him.

Rock switched to Fire Storm and blasted the nearest plasma cannon.How _dare he!How __dare Dr. Wily assault Rock when all the android had ever wanted was to live in peace.His anger built as he blasted again and again at the plasma cannon mounted on the mech._

Wily's frightened, outraged voice blasted from the speakers above.

"You--you're _fighting me!You can't do that, Rock!You'll kill me!Remember the Prime Rule!"Panic laced the overtones of his speech."You __are trying to kill me!"_

Rock let fire course over the shield covering the cockpit, knowing it would do no harm to Wily himself."Wily, you had your chance!I tried to help you, and you scorned me!Now you'll face true justice!"

The hawk-eyed android had to hurl himself to the side as the mech dropped sharply in an attempt to crush him.Two more proboscis-like tubes emerged from the top of the mech and began raining invisible laser fire on the room.The floor exploded with the force of the laser blasts, and Rock felt the room heating up, despite the open door and the hangar's own vast size.

"Defy me, will you?" Wily's voice was now laden with rage as well."We'll see about that!Die, you bastard!"

Plasma blazed throughout the room, accompanied by the high whine of laser fire.A hatch in the back of the mech opened and spat a dozen small missiles at Rock.He threw himself to the side and rolled to avoid the explosions they made.As he hit, he felt his left arm's joint pop loose.

Before he could rise, the virus struck.

Rock felt the virus hunter melt like snow in the sun before the virus' onslaught.Pain coursed through his torso and limbs, and he heard himself screaming nonsense.Lying supine on the floor, he was dimly aware that he had been struck twice by the mech remaining plasma cannon.

_And is this the end you wanted, Rock?The virus was laughing in his head, every bit as maniacal as the insane laughter which crowed from the hangar's speaker system.__Enjoy your death.I know I shall._

Fighting the virus, Rock managed to push himself to his feet.If he could manage to overheat the armor on the mech, perhaps he could make it jettison the thick plates.He could smash whatever protected the cockpit and retrieve Wily--

_And kill him! the virus sang.__Kill him, Rock!You know you want to!_

Rock growled and built energy in his good buster, readying the Fire Storm once again.His weapons energy reserve had dropped below 30%, and his operating energy had drained to 23%.His internal chronometer gave him four minutes to live before the virus entirely destroyed the virus-hunting program.

He managed to execute a staggering charge before releasing the hellish blaze onto the armor-plated surface of the floating war mech.

"_Wily!!"He wasn't sure if the scream had been his or the virus', but it blew his last vocal transistor.Crimson-gold fire blasted across the cooling vents of the mech and melted the plasma cannons to slag.Rock poured more energy into the fire, ever more, until he could see the outer metal melting like wax._

Abruptly, with an impossibly loud _crack, the armor plating blasted away from the mech.Part of it hit Rock full in the head and chest, bashing him to the ground and slashing his face with searing pain._

Rock pushed himself up on his hand and knees and looked at the mech.

There, where the bulb had been, was a glass-bubble cockpit, and within it was Dr. Wily.His gaunt, lined face was a study in hatred, limned in hellish shades of red and black with the infernal atmosphere of the room.His teeth were bared, and his hands clutched whitely around a pair of guiding levers.

Directly below the cockpit was a previously hidden hyper-cannon, its energy focused into a massive red jewel that would released a hybrid laser/plasma bolt into anything within range.Rock knew that if he were hit twice--maybe even once--with that weapon, that he would be dead.

_As if that's even a question anymore, the virus chortled._

"Shut the hell _up!"Rock switched to Thunder Beam._

"You _dare to attack me?!" Wily's voice raged from the speakers above.Rock could see the spittle flying from his mouth as he screamed within his cockpit."Damn robot __bastard!I'll teach you!"_

Rock released a charged bolt of synthetic lightning into the focus jewel for the hyper-cannon and rolled to the side as it blasted a column of destruction along the wall.Steel ran like water under its punishing glare, and Rock could feel the heat of it crisping the outer layers of his armor, even from several meters away.

As Rock tried to step into a position from which he could once again strike the focus jewel, the virus struck once again._Oh no you don't._

The sable-haired android collapsed to the floor in fits of screaming agony.The hellish fires that blazed throughout the room dimmed in comparison to the ones he felt streaming throughout his body.He twitched spasmodically, and saw his good buster firing Thunder Beams chaotically into the room.His weapons energy store was nearly totally depleted.

He could dimly see that two of the bolts had actually managed to hit the focus jewel, which was coming around to bear on him.Dr. Wily's sweaty, angry face was barely visible over the lip of the mech's control panel from this point.

The last shreds of the virus hunter program tried lamely to push the virus back into the Second Rule module, and Rock made himself stand.He could feel hatred radiating from both the virus and Dr. Wily.

He blasted once more missing the focus jewel.However, the operating lights in the mech suddenly went dark, and the mech slowly began to descend.Somehow, that last blast had short-circuited electrical controls for the war machine!

Inside the bubble, Dr. Wily raged with impotence.In a last act of desperation, he jammed his thumb down on a single button.

Rock could tell, even as he saw it coming, that he had fired the hyper-cannon one last time before all power was cut to the mech.

He saw one possibility as he aimed his good buster at the focus crystal.

Time seemed to slow down.A voice spoke in his head, though it was not the virus--confined for one last microsecond to its prison in Rock's module containing the Second Rule.He thought it might have been his own voice, or that of Dr. Light's.

_You don't have to do this.No lives will be saved by your sacrifice--Wily is no longer a threat to humanity.The U.N. will take him into custody and take him to jail.If you do this, it is only for your own sense of justice._

_Dr. Wily is my__ responsibility, Rock answered.__Mine will be the hand that brings him to justice.If I don't do this, I will be destroyed by the cannon._

_You will be destroyed anyway, the voice said gently, __The virus will see to that._

_For my own sense of justice, then! Rock decided._

Ruby light gathered in the focus crystal.

Rock charged his right buster the first microsecond.

In the next, he forced all remaining power into his shattered left buster.

In the third, he forced the power through broken circuits.Pain flared through his body, suffusing his being with agony.

If he fired with both cannons at once, he could destroy the focus crystal and completely disarm Dr. Wily, though it would cause his circuitry to overload.He would die as he fired, but Dr. Wily would be brought to justice.

_For no other reason, he told himself._

Sheets of agony made him shudder, but on the fifth microsecond, he released the twin plasma blasts at exactly the same time--into the focus crystal.

He felt his body jump as his circuitry overloaded, and realized with his last thought that he had violated the Second Rule by endangering his own life without saving a human's.

And in the sixth microsecond, he felt a horrible, terrified, impotent rage blast across his already numbing body.

Everything went white.

There was a terrible, deathly silence.


	14. Epilogue

Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Several moments passed in silence.

Starlight filtered through the half-open bays doors.A bitter wind swept through the room, twisting dark ash into insubstantial pillars and sending it to scatter into skirling patterns on the flame-blasted floor.

Outside, the low hum of an approaching hovership threaded its way through the howling noise of the cold mountain wind.Debris rattled with something more than wind, and a smoke-darkened metal plate slowly slid to the side, clattering to the floor.A grimy, pale hand reached out of a shattered glass bubble and pulled a twisted manual release lever.

Dr. Wily tumbled to the ground from his battered war mech and glared around him.

Rock stood stock still before him, his eyes staring off into space.

Immediately, the German roboticist prostrated himself and whimpered.The words that came from his mouth were barely a whisper, laden with humiliation and fear.

"Forgive me."

For several minutes he bowed down submissively.The bitter taste of defeat accompanied the bile that rose in his throat.He blinked back tears of rage and pressed his forehead to the floor. How?How had he been defeated?His plans of a New World Order had shattered like glass, leaving Dr. Wily bloodying his hands on the shards as he tried to press them back together.

His dreams slipped away on the wind, along with a portion of his madness.

He looked back at the events of the past few weeks and forced down shame.How could he have possibly committed such atrocities?How many deaths lay on his conscience?How could he have turned against his own cousin?

_It was necessary._

The shame hardened into bitterness.If he had not acted as he had, then the world would have inflicted a greater catastrophe upon itself.Perhaps now people would finally wake up and realize that robots were not the solution to the world's problems, but just another symptom of a deeper dilemma.

For a fleeting, terrible moment, a huge, fanged monster leaped at him from the shadows, and the scientist cringed, expecting the worst.However, it too, like his dreams and ambitions, turned to dust and blew away on the howling wind.Dr. Wily turned and looked out the bay doors, at the sea of stars.

Only after a moment's mournful contemplation did he realize that Rock still hadn't moved.

*****

In the center of the inky blackness, a thought surfaced.

_Am._

The expression of existence broadened, took on ego.

_I am._

A light flashed into existence.A name, nearly forgotten and elusive as a moth.

Memories.

Blue eyes topped with dark eyebrows and a cloud of snow-white hair.

Emerald-green leaves of a beautiful chrome and wood treeborg, veined with silicon and rustling slightly in the early autumn breeze.

A globe of golden fire setting over a huge metropolis, painting the city in shades of metallic red and yellow, turning the windows of sundry buildings into breathtaking lamps of cold fire.

Something shiny and circular and painful, severing motion cables and slashing through pale syntheflesh.

A huge monster of brass and fire, bathed in the blood of innocents and raining ruby-colored death onto the unfortunate blue figure below . . .

_I am Rock._

With the realization came a surge of joy and wild exultation.Something unexpected and wonderful had happened, and he was alive!A feeling of freedom, of a heavy, oppressive weight disappearing suffused him.

Rock blinked and realized that he had been staring straight ahead for several minutes.

Why was he alive?His mind swam with questions and probability matrices.The virus?Where was it?Had the virus hunter somehow destroyed it?

Understanding lit Rock's youthful face.

By defying the Second Rule, where the virus had been contained, the module short-circuited and drove the virus into the waiting jaws of the virus-hunter program written by Roll and Dr. Light.Somehow, he had survived!

He ran a quick diagnostic on himself.Why had he survived using both plasma busters--especially when the left one had been forced into operation only through sheer force of will?He should have overloaded and deactivated all circuits--including his memory banks--by committing such an act.

Not surprisingly, his operating energy was down to less than 1%.He blinked and ran a quick energy-trace history program.What he found amazed him; somehow, the remaining energy stores reserved for weapons operation had spontaneously shifted amperage to match the required amount for his second buster shot!

Wily!

Rock started in surprise and immediately wished he hadn't as every warning alarm and alert message he could possibly generate screamed for attention.He slowly turned his head and scanned the room for Dr. Wily.

There stood the German madman, silhouetted against the night sky revealed by the half-open bay doors.His wild white hair blew wispy in the cold breeze that twisted through the room like an ethereal serpent and twined its way about the half-melted remains of the golden war mech.

He turned a stared at Rock for a moment, his face displaying a gamut of expressions from hatred to frustration to sorrow.After a few seconds, seeming to sense that Rock had awoken, he took a half step backwards.

"A robot must never harm a human being," he said, voice tremorous with fear.

Rock felt his anger circuits once again begin to heat, but he tempered his anger with his exultation at being alive.The mixed emotions made his voice sound strange to his ears."Hearing that from _you is the ultimate irony. Stay right where you are, Wily.I won't warn you twice."An idle threat, of course, but Dr. Wily would now have little way to know that, having seen Rock break the first two Rules of Robotics.The raven-haired android stood still, waiting to see his adversary's reaction._

Amazingly, Dr. Wily knelt on the rubble-strewn floor. His weathered features chiseled by bitterness and humiliation, he bowed down in the ancient Japanese style of a peasant paying respect to his lord.The wrinkled brow touched the ground and with the palms pressed down on either side.

Too hurt to even move closer, Rock stood absolutely still and let his auto-repair systems do what little they could for the next several minutes.

When the U.N.'s elite strike force arrived, that was how they found the two enemies.

*****

General Mears brushed ash from his too-tight uniform and glared out the window of the hovership.Dr. Wily had been taken into custody by his troops, to stand trial for war crimes and a hundred other, less monumental offenses.The so-called hero Rockman now sat opposite General Mears in the hovership's officers' lounge.

Certainly, he looked more or less human.The slash across his face that ran from his upper right temple to just above the bridge of his nose might have been leaking a dark fluid that smelled of oil rather than blood, and the thing a the end of his left arm was certainly not organic.However, if Mears had seen Rockman in civilian clothing, he might have mistaken him for human.

Rockman had not spoken more than a few words since his rescue a few hours before.When Mears and his troops had arrived, Rock had merely guided Dr. Wily to the two troops that had taken custody of him, muttered "Thank you," and limped into the hovership.Mears felt that it was his duty to invite the android to the officers' lounge.

The comm unit beeped.Mears sat up straight."Yes?"

"Sir, we're about to launch the warheads."

Mearns took a deep breath.The warheads were nuclear, though not even so destructive as the type that had ended the second World War nearly three-quarters of a century ago.Although there was very little risk of any human settlements being contaminated, the areas surrounded Skull Castle would not host life for decades.

"Fire," he said.

The hovership shook the slightest bit as two missiles' worth of weight detached themselves from the hull and rocketed towards Dr. Wily's fortress.A moment passed, and the sky lit with a man-made sun.Waves of destruction spread out around the place where Skull Castle had been only seconds before, blasting mountain tops into rubble.A large mushroom cloud slowly rose over the blackened bones of the mountainside, and Mears could have sworn that he saw a macabre death's head image in the cloud.

Rockman sighed with something that might have been sorrow, or relief.

Mears turned to him."Well, that's done with."He cleared his throat and awkwardly continued."So, how do you feel?"

It was several moments before the blue-armored figure before him answered.However, when he did, the expression on the android's face was so radiant, so full of joy, that Mears almost believed the word that Rockman said.

"Alive."

Rockman sat straighter in the officer's seat and spoke once more to General Mears.

"Thank you very much, Sir, for rescuing me.Now that Dr. Wily is safe in your custody, I believe I'd like to return home."

The large man shrugged."I'm sure you would, but this ship is touching down in Argentina.I'm sure you can make arrangements from there."

Rockman half-smiled."Oh, that won't be necessary." And before the General's astonished eyes, the blue-armored robot hunter disappeared in a line of sapphire flame and light.

*****

Deep below the ruins of Skull Castle, unaffected by the nuclear hell above, something stirred.

It might have been a robot.Perhaps it had dragged itself, always on the brink of death, through a coolant-system access panel.Perhaps it had, bereft of sight and hearing and all but the feeble spark of life, laboriously dragged itself ever deeper into the comforting darkness.

Whatever the case, its overworked auto-repair systems had finally begun to catch up with nearly endless list of demands that assailed it, and sight returned to the mangled, legless thing that existed in the lowest depths of what had once been Skull Castle.

For days it sat, letting itself recharge and grow more powerful.

Had one looked at this thing that may once have been called Docman, the only thing visible in the otherwise complete blackness of the now-empty drainage systems would have been a single crimson eye, burning with hatred like a small portal to hell.

Two thoughts drove the thing to keep its all-but-worthless existence.

It would destroy the one who had abandoned it to horrible, lightless undeath.

And it would utterly destroy the one who had maimed it nearly beyond repair.

Far above, slightly luminescent mist inflicted death and sterility on the soil and mountains.

And in the depths of the earth, a half-living robot dreamed its dreams of madness and revenge.

*****

Rock landed at the outskirts of Tokyo, right around sunset.

Behind the mountains to the west, the sun was a red-gold disk whose ruby-colored rays touched Rock's face with warm, invisible fingers.The evening breeze provided a cool, pleasant contrast as it wafted up from the sea.

In no hurry, Rock began to walk.He intended to enjoy his journey home--every precious second of it.What a precious gift his life had become!He retracted his helmet into his skull and let the breeze play with his hair as the shades of the sky deepened from dark crimson to violet to indigo and finally to nearly black.

The stars had emerged from their daily sleep and now blazed with unearthly beauty down on the city.Rock gazed fondly at his home.Neo Tokyo was alight with a thousand different colors as people celebrated the downfall of Dr. Wily and the restoration of peace to the world.Rock's brow creased slightly as he thought of Dr. Wily, but he brushed the thoughts aside; they could wait until another day.

The sea of lights that was the city was a distorted reflection of the sea of stars above, and Rock marveled at their twin beauty.The moon had already risen when he finally began to approach Dr. Light's house.

There, waiting for him, were the familiar faces: Dr. Light, and Roll.Snap and his daughters, Bess and Julie.Many of the workers from the LighTech lab were in attendance too, and Rock immediately spotted Akira Yamatsu with his mismatched eyes.Even Dr. Light's storage robot Eddie stood in expectation.

Ad the crowd spotted him a deafening cheer broke out, and Rock felt his face muscles almost involuntarily stretch into a grin.Finally, it was over, and he was among family and friends: those who cared for him.He leaped to embrace Roll and Dr. Light, and felt something roll down his cheek as he crushed his "sister" in a bear hug.

A tear.

As the moon rose even further above the megatropolis of Neo Tokyo, it illuminated a group of celebrants clustered around a figure in battered blue armor and wild, sable-hued hair.Laughter echoed through the surrounding area and a wave of happiness and relief seemed to spread throughout the world.

And Rock was, finally, fully happy and content.

*****

The Robot War has drawn to a close, with humanity as the victor and Rockman as its ironicsavior.

The chaotic domination of Dr. Wily has been ended, and the world has been restored to peace once more.Pockets of resistance amongst HSL fanatics still hold out, and the never-ending battle between order and chaos, between peace and the forces of destruction, always continues.

However, humanity has found new champion that stands tall against the winds of misfortune.

Fight, Rockman!For everlasting peace!


End file.
